


Wellspring Dawn

by bakezorishoes



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Harem, I'll get to it eventually, I'm Sorry, Multi, No Uchiha Massacre, Romance, Sasuke is still a ball of angst, Slow Build, So many tropes, Wordcount: Over 10.000, Wordcount: Over 20.000, Wordcount: Over 30.000, all children's maturity is questionable, but it's naruto, child naruto gets hug, decent grammar, definitely no defiantly, going to be harem, good trash, i think, no mary sue, put it in recycling, questionable maturity of children, sexy times later, shameless fixit, some things never change, trash, we all wanted to give him one
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-17
Updated: 2016-02-21
Packaged: 2018-05-21 08:12:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 35,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6044472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bakezorishoes/pseuds/bakezorishoes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She knew only that she had just saved a bird, and then got hit by a car. Why did she wake up to find herself in one of Konoha's less prestigious orphanages? Better yet, why was she four and what did she even look like?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Ok so prologue, and I made a shameless oc Naruto fanfiction
> 
> This is basically backstory and how she gets there and some foreshadowing
> 
> ok so dont like dont read :)
> 
> Disclaimer- I do not own nor make profit from Naruto

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inspiration:  
> "All around you things are purely living, and you among them, and the aliveness makes you tremble. You feel an intense, out-of-the-skin awareness of your living self—your truest self, the human being you want to be and then become by the force of wanting it. In the midst of evil you want to be a good man. you want decency. You want justice and courtesy and human concord, things you never knew you wanted." - Tim O’Brien  
> Really it was mainly the sentence "In the midst of evil you want to be a good man." That inspired me, but I felt that the rest of the paragraph was needed as well. It's from his short, 'How to Tell a True War Story'

Jessica. An unremarkable name, to match what had turned out to be an equally unremarkable life. Born to an already dead father, her mother had seemed to not be able to handle the loss. As such her, thankfully unremembered for the most part, early childhood had been far from desirable. Her mother had gotten into some bad things and the high that released her mother forever only tightened the noose on Jessica's future. Not to say that she had no chance. She was shuffled around from relative to relative for a bit, and then finally dumped with her mother's second cousin, Becca- it would seem as though they had been close in childhood and the responsibilities of an adult life had separated them.

Not to say that she was in anyway abused at all or hurt, just… ignored. She was very grateful to Becca, it was simply that she already had kids that she was raising, and the financial strain was a bit stressful. She hardly had time for her own kids as it was, and that was not in any way helped by Jessica's presence. So, she did her best to be helpful; she volunteered to do all the housework while Becca could not due to her busy schedule and extra hours. She snuck around the house, like a ghost, and did her best to be as little of a burden as possible.

She went to school, came home, did chores, went to bed, then got up, did chores and went to school. The days blurred as they mirrored one another. It wasn't long till she noticed that, for some reason she could just understand everything much better than her peers. Jessica had thought nothing of it, she had much bigger fish to fry- oft times quite literally.

Her teachers had caught on after a year or two, and when confronted she had been excited. She was gifted? If that was so then that meant that she could be even less of a burden and be of even more help to Ms. Becca- as she had gotten into the habit of calling her. If she was talented and special, and all of the other lovely words these kind people were using, then surely that was good? That meant that Ms. Becca would have less to worry about, and she would smile that lovely happy smile on her lined face even more.

Needless to say her excitement was very short lived. Becca and their little suburban family could not afford a genius. On the contrary, she had seemed so crushed by the end of the conference with her teacher, that Jessica did her best to reassure her that there was no need to have any of the things the silly teachers were talking about. Jessica had said that they were probably just being silly adults and that they were probably wrong, she was only in the second grade, it was much too early to be deciding the rest of her life and spending so much money. After all, she was just like all the other kids in her class. She had a head, two arms, two legs, and she could play hopscotch with the best of them! Yes, the teachers were silly and there was no need for ms.Becca to worry about a thing.

Unconvinced, but willing to let herself be soothed and talked out of the notion that Jessica was in need of extra time, attention, and money, ms.Becca returned to her normal self; and life returned to its routine. Jessica had a worked up a very compelling argument. The whole event was but a bump on the roadmap. From then on, she got not 100's in every class, but rather different variations of A's. Putting her at the top, but not a genius. No, Genius' were much too much trouble, and Jessica was never one for causing trouble.

Life went on. Days passed. Life was monochrome and repetitive. It was an eye opening day when she had run into one of ms.Becca's children in the kitchen, and they had asked her for her name- he was searching for something and had nonchalantly asked the question as though they had not been living together in the modestly sized house for over two thirds of her life. She had shortly replied and life had then, once again proceeded to go on.

Lonely.

Yes that was the word for it. She was lonely. Surrounded as she was by extended family, she was lonely. Her shade like personality and presence had carried over into her school life by that point, and she was not even an afterthought in the minds of her peers. She was never called out in class, she never engaged in conversation, she did her work mutely, and helped others as discreetly and quietly as she could. She did so enjoy helping people- it gave her a warm feeling in her chest whenever she saw that she had helped someone, or made another feel good. From the first time ms.Becca had thanked her for doing the dishes, she had become addicted to the sensation.

Although she was lonely, she still felt that spark of warmth in her chest. It became a bit of an obsession; helping people made her feel less lonely, less cold, as though she was apart of something- even if in truth, she knew that she was not. This knowledge did nothing to make the warm feelings in her chest go away whenever she saw someone's face light up in happiness over something seemingly small. It always felt as though the warmth was tenderly hugging her heart.

Leaving kind post-it notes, leaving cookies for birthday people or those who seemed under the weather, nudging people toward one another that they were suited for personality wise and watching healthy friendships and relationships form, watching people get good grades with her assistance- the list was near endless. When she felt the loneliness creeping its way into her heart, its long scraggly fingers clutching at her chest, she simply thought of those happy people, and the loneliness just seemed that much farther away. In a sense it was symbiotic; by helping others she could survive.

Of course her simple, yet not exactly unsalvageable life had to take a turn for the worst. An eagle. Yes, an Eagle. She had never seen one before in her life, and apparently neither had the person driving the minivan. It had clipped the low flying, small eagle on the wing. The poor bird screeched and careened about wildly before crashing harshly onto the asphalt. A figurehead of such loyalty and integrity reduced to a heap upon the ground.

Jessica could only stare in horrified silence as she watched. But there, she could see, the bird was still breathing! Looking both ways, she felt a sense of desperation fill her- there was another car coming and she did not have it in her to just simply stand and watch as the bird's life was so cruelly ended. Not when she held the capacity to do something about it. Before she could even consider the consequences of what she was doing she had dashed into the street, gently- but quickly- gathering the bird into her arms, she attempted to get back to safety. Impossibly, the car she had been almost entirely sure would hit her just barely grazed her back. She could feel the wind- the tugging attraction of the underdraft- and heard a horn blaring loudly in her ears.

Shaking from the adrenaline, she dropped to her knees off to the side of the road. Setting the wild- and most likely dangerous despite its smaller stature- bird on the grass, she checked the damage. Thank goodness, nothing seemed to be broken, if anything, the poor thing was simply dazed and confused from the harsh hit. Giggling, perhaps a little more hysterically than she had planned, she cleared her throat before standing. Gently she made a nest of sorts in a lower hanging branch of a sturdy tree and rested the bird there. As she was going to leave, her eyes met the eagles'. She could not explain it, but it was like something shifted, like the world had just tilted on its axis, or the poles had inverted. There was more than just animal intelligence in those eyes- there was a sort of sentience.

Jessica took one step back, and then another. Backing away from the tree and back toward the road; she never saw it coming. Although she wasn't in the road, it would seem as though she was distraction enough for a driver to swerve into her direction and hit her dead on. There was a sickening wet crunch and as her body was flung about and ripped apart effortlessly by the metal might of the car; she could only see the eyes of the eagle. Fleetingly she worried about what this accident would do to the mental state of the poor driver.

Then there was nothing.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> oK SO this is where she wakes up in the Naruto world confused as well as some hardship/ rough situation i guess?
> 
> Dont like dont read
> 
> Disclaimer in the first

Waking up was a slow thing. It was as though she was in a tube, with an underwater current pushing against her. She was getting closer and closer to the surface, and yet she could not make it to the top; before she could she was dragged back down into inky darkness. Occasionally she could see shapes and lights that were distorted throughout her vision, she could hear muffled, slurred voices, even the faintest scents of rotting wood and sweat. These happenings were very brief, for as soon as she comprehended the use of even one of her senses, she was overwhelmed, and slowly dragged back under.

However, she gradually fought her way to consciousness. She observed as blurs got sharper, and listened as the murmurs became clearer, and eventually she even managed to slightly pry open one eye. Then the other. Blinking sluggishly, she looked around to see that she was in a room. In a bed. There were many other small beds fitted snugly into the space, until it seemed as though there was room only for walking betwixt them. The sheets were threadbare from too many washes, stained and yellow from time as well as the little bodies likely fitting into the little beds.

Viewing as much of her body as she could, she felt a jolt of panic. Blackness began closing in around the edges of her vision. She was small. She was much too small to be a teenager as she had been previously. She looked as though she was almost a toddler again, although underweight and thinner than most, her arms were still slightly chubby with baby fat, and her body was dwarfed in what she had only just seconds ago dubbed a 'little bed'.

She promptly passed out once again.

Upon her second awakening, she managed to keep conscious. She panicked when she again came to the revelation that she was in a child's body, but she did not pass out. She was rather embarrassed about that, she wasn't really the type to faint. She chalked up the fainting to her strange situation, and vowed to disallow such behavior in the future. So, instead, she stared blankly at her little body; well, what she could see of it outlined under the covers. As she was lying supine, it was nigh impossible to get a good look, and keeping her neck in such a strained position was both difficult and a bit painful. Despite those things, she simply could not tear her gaze away.

Ultimately she decided that this was a dream or the afterlife. But if it was a dream, then why she would want to go back to when she was a toddler- roughly around the age of four, judging by the size of her body- she had no clue. This time period of her life was not the most pleasant- perhaps that was why she was in this age? Her subconscious' attempt at finding closure? Then again it could also be the afterlife, which was a complete unknown.

If it was a dream, her theories still hardly made any sense. If closure was the problem, then she wouldn't be in this room. This room was small and made of dark, worn wood; barren save for the many beds fit tightly within, all in compact, orderly rows,with sloppily made beds. Her own bed was pushed up with the area where a dashboard would be pressed against a side wall, situated in a line with the other beds. There was also a distinct musky scent of rotting wood and urine that made her nose crinkle up. There was one window- if you could call it that- set high on the wall to her left. It was cloudy and cracked, looking to be rusted shut, with dirt and dust acting as more glue to ensure that it would never open again- not without being broken. It was glowing ethereally with the sunlight shining behind it trying to get through.

She had just woken up, and going from what she had observed, she had been sleeping for a while. However, her head was starting to hurt, and she felt kind of tired. Why would her body still be wanting sleep? Why was she even feeling these things so vividly?

She heard a sharp gasp on her left. Whipping her head around, she found herself looking at a young boy. Much like her own body, the boy was underweight; he was also wearing cheap and worn clothes. Before she could think to say much of anything, he had already dashed out of the room.

Next thing she knew, there were heavy footsteps accompanied by softer, littler ones, marching toward her. She could feel a rock form in her stomach, and her shoulders tightened. What was coming? More like who was coming? The door, that was left cracked in the little boys haste to get out, was thrust open harshly, causing the door to smack harshly against the wall. The empty opening was then filled with the hulking mass of a stern looking woman. As she walked through the doorway, her presence alone seemed to suck up all the air.

She had steely grey hair, pulled up tightly in a bun on the top of her head. Her face bore the marks of someone who lived demandingly; her eyes were lined, and the sides of her mouth had furrows carved in deeply. The Ladies' eyes were like lasers, and they were fixed right on her little form in the bed. When she stopped, right on the edge of the bed, she opened her mouth and… was that japanese?

She just sat and stared blankly for a moment. Of course she knew the language, to an extent, but she had no clue why she was in this situation where she was being spoken to in it. Suddenly the lady stopped, then yelled,

"Yori!" She was confused. Trust? Somehow she felt as though she should know that word- or was it a name. It felt familiar, even though she knew that she had only ever heard it a few times before while learning the language. Was that her name here? Wait, what was her name again? Why could she not remember? But the lady was not done, and she seemed to not be amused by 'Yori's' behavior.

"Sickness is no excuse for this stupidity! You will get up and do your chores at once. Your fever went down days ago, you lazy chit!" The lady's eyes were hard and dark. Yori- as she decided to refer to herself now, while she was living in this dream or afterlife experience- felt a jolt of fear go through her. She moved her heavy body as fast as she could, which was depressingly slow. Her limbs felt like lead and her feet like they belonged to someone else. Overall her body was in rough shape.

When her feet slapped the cool ground on the side of her bed, her knees would have given out if it weren't for the calloused hand that gripped her ear. Pinching painfully and dragging her out of the room at a pace she could hardly keep up with considering her short legs- she was running on her tippy-toes- it felt as though the matron lady was trying to tear her ear off, the pain was so severe. She reached up to grab ahold of the hand attempting to rip off her ear but it was futile, and just when she thought she could take no more, she was released. Well, more like tossed.

She was just glad that her ear was still attached. Grasping it with both hands as she slumped on the floor where she had been so roughly thrown, Yori looked around. She was surrounded by basic cleaning supplies, as well as toilets and some showers. It was all filthy looking. The ground had some sort of mold it looked like, and the showers had no curtains. There was simply a nob in the wall, with a rusted drain in the ground for all the old shower heads that looked off-white with soap scum. The toilets as well had no privacy. They were simply off to the side, in the corner, looking menacing to her small form. The scent of the room itself was horrendous, not to mention what it must smell like closer to those porcelain monstrosities; they seemed to radiate their own aura of filth about them.

At the sound of an indrawn breath, Yori quickly snapped her eyes back to the lady.

"You have five hours. You will clean this bathroom and then you will go outside. You will be back on time or you will receive no food." With that she turned on her heel and marched off, to Yori's great relief.

She was shocked, but she didn't say anything. Perhaps she had been bad in her life, and this was her hell? She thought hard, she didn't believed she had been that bad. Then again this could also be a dream, so, a nightmare? She didn't know what to think; it was all so real. From the sights to the sounds and smells- all with so many miniscule, lifelike details. Even now she could hear the sounds of children trickling through the thin walls and the dripping of the faucets. She looked down, even if she was dreaming she had her work cut out for her. She screwed up her face in disgust.

Her body still weak with aches and pains, and her ear was throbbing under her hand, she did her best to move around- she started with her legs, controlling them to get them to do what she wanted. Twisting them at the ankles, bending the knees, flexing her toes. It was a very strange experience. It was like it was her body, but not. Like she didn't know how to use it properly yet. The fact that she was exhausted didn't help much. She did the same with her arms what she had done to her legs, and once she finished, she guessed that about thirty minutes had passed. She looked around herself and sighed.

At least she wouldn't have to ask anyone where the bathroom was- she suspected that she would already be expected to know.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More of her in the orphanage and a meeting with you-know-who  
> And it's not voldamort
> 
> disclaimer in the first

Yori propped her little fists against her equally little hips. Feeling accomplished with herself, she looked around at the bathroom. It was as clean as it could possibly get, without tearing it down and rebuilding the whole thing. All the mold that could be exterminated, was scrubbed away. The soap scum thickly lining the showers and sinks was gone, leaving almost sparkling tiles and metal behind. And the worst part, the toilets, had been polished and scrubbed to the nth degree. Leaving her comfortable enough to actually sit on them if and whenever she felt the need to relieve herself. Considering her little body and the pathetic cleaning materials she was given, she rather fancied herself a miracle worker.

Over all it had taken her about three and a half hours. Giving her roughly an hour to do as she wished. First things first, she needed to see if there was any reading material here in her nightmare slash afterlife. Obviously she wasn't in her home country anymore, judging by the language. She wondered if she was in an entirely new world, or if she was just in some nondescript version of her own former reality. Either way, she needed books to find out. She couldn't just ask, or she'd run the risk of the matronly ear-pinching lady reacting violently to a supposedly stupid question. At that she shuddered and rubbed her still sore ear.

Exiting the bathroom, she was shocked to find a sort of simplistic architectural floor plan. Outside the bathroom was a hallway, and directly across was a door she assumed led to another bedroom or a storage closet, and down the left of the hallway she saw two other doors- one of which being to the very room she had woken up in. In the opposite direction down the hallway she saw an well lit opening, and she assumed that this was a commons area. Therefore, it was her best bet at finding out anything. As she went over to it, she could hear the sounds of life, and smell food. The food made her stomach gurgle. Who knew when the last time she had eaten was in this body, considering how long she was unconscious.

As she entered the room, she saw that it looked about as rough as the rest of the building. The wood was worn and in some places splintering, and the rare areas which happened to have any paint adorning their structure, were peeling unattractively. The only things in the room that seemed to hold any inkling of happiness, were the kids. There were quite a few of them, most of them older, and they were all socializing; sitting in groups and never getting too rowdy. She could assume why, rubbing again at her ear.

As her eyes scanned the room, she took note of all the kids; they were all wearing not the same clothes persay, but the same type. Cheap, torn, and sometimes too small or too big. She looked down at her own dirty clothes and realized that they were much the same. She was wearing an overlarge pair of blue baggy shorts that reached down below her knees, and also a large white stained shirt, that was habitually falling off of one shoulder. The kids were also all very diverse. From young to teenage, light to dark, one similarity that seemed to travel throughout them all was the tendency to be skinny, sometimes over much. She got a feeling that this place was not a daycare or anything like that. She had been to an orphanage before, and although it was much different from this place, it was also very much the same.

As her eyes scanned the room, she noted the worn down furniture, the stains on almost everything, the scuffs, the smears, and the very distinct lack of anything fragile or expensive. Nothing but the bare necessities; it was rather spartan to be honest. A few couches, a few tables and a few- Aha!- bookcases with old looking torn up books. She softly walked across the room toward one of the bookcases. Nobody tried to stop her, nobody tried to talk to her. It was as though she was a part of the woodwork. It would seem as though at least some things had stayed the same from her own world. She didn't know whether to feel relieved about that or not. She decided it was bitter sweet.

As she made it to the bookshelves, she examined the titles. She saw a thick one on learning kanji, and a dictionary, so she grabbed those right off. Then she looked around some more and found one labeled, 'Geography and Cultures of the Elemental Nations' or at least she was pretty sure that was what it said, she couldn't be positive.

She felt a sense of foreboding. Elemental Nations? That couldn't possibly be, she grabbed it quickly off the shelf, and made her way over to one of the emptier corners, to a small table with nothing on it and a singular worn chair that looked ready to snap anytime. She sat and immediately opened the book. What she read she found hard to believe. It couldn't be? Naruto? The fictional world of Naruto the anime and manga?

Feeling herself begin to freak out a bit, she read as much of the book as she could. She had read the manga before. She had found the volumes one day while she was cleaning one of her younger cousins' room. She had cracked it open, curious, seeing as she had heard about it in passing many times before. She had fallen in love with the plot and storyline right away. It made her laugh and cry- it was a very touching series- and was likely one of her favorite mangas. Not that she really read much manga other than the ones she happened upon from school or the public library. Usually she was the kind to read the more stereotypical, seemingly more boring nonfiction book. Absorbing knowledge like a sponge.

The manga series had shocked her with her immediate like of it and she had finished all that there was to read in almost a month. Very little sleep and a quickened pace in chores had gotten her through it. Afterwards, she was so into it she had even looked up extra facts about it on the internet. She had shocked herself with her like of it. But she didn't know that much. Certainly not all that she was reading from the book in her hands. There were details in this book that were never even mentioned in the series or theorized by fans. Places and customs and historical events and landmarks that had nothing to do with the series. It just seemed so very real, when Naruto was so obviously not.

She would have stuck to the books for much longer if she could, puzzling things out in her head, but a loud ringing swept through the room. Everyone got up, and although many were still talking, others were silent as they all moved as one, putting things away and tidying up before migrating to a large open doorway with no door that she had not noticed before. In fact there were three doorways, and seeing as there were kids rushing in from the third door dirty sweaty and flushed, she assumed that it led to the outside.

Realizing that she was staring, Yori rushed to put her books away and follow the rest of the group. Blending in with the moving mass of bodies, she entered what looked like a dining room. There were a few long tables, and she joined the edge of an already seated group of girls who looked her own physical age. All the other kids seemed to be doing the same, sitting separated by gender and age group. Next thing she knew the Matron lady, as well as a couple of older teenage kids, came out with food. Everyone was served with a sort of mechanic fluidity.

She looked at the food, and it seemed to be a sort of watered down vegetable soup. Then rolls of bread were passed around, and when she got hers, it also left some to be desired, hard as it was. Her stomach didn't seem to care, and like a majority of the other kids, she dug in. She left her bread in the broth to soak, and maybe soften enough for her not to chip a tooth when she bit into it.

After dinner was concluded, and everyone turned their empty dishes in, they were told that they were allowed three hours free time after dinner starting today, due to the seasons changing. There was a threat that any not in bed by that time, were going to be sleeping outside. Yori had no doubt that she meant every word. Just as they had shuffled into the room, the kids all moved out of it; save for a handful, who seeme to be moving toward the dishes. She assumed that they were on dishes duty or something of the sort.

As soon as she was back in the room, she grabbed the books she had been working on and a few other informative ones, and got back to reading. What she was reading only made her more incredulous. Either this was the most elaborate dream she had ever had, or she was going crazy. Because there was no chance in heck that she had actually been transported to the Naruto world. To be honest she didn't know how to feel about this. Because these books were telling a story that was just too unbelievable. But what could she do? She felt like this was all real, she could feel pain, and other emotions- fear being one of them as well as panic- she could still think to herself, and the people around her looked genuine; laughing, talking and overall acting as a real person would.

She spent the entirety of the next three hours by herself reading. She focused her mind on the words on the page and deciphering what they were telling her, memorizing the facts in case they came in handy. She had no clue what she was going to do, but she gave her mind a rest from having to figure that out. When it came time to go to bed, despite her body demanding rest, it took her longer than the others to fall asleep. She eventually came to a shaky decision before she fell into a deep slumber. She decided that if it all turned out to be a coma induced dream, it wouldn't matter what she did. Not that she was capable of much. But because she was given this life like dream, really a blessing in disguise, she decided that she would make the most of it. It was her dream, her life. She would do with it what she wanted, and have a fulfilling time as much as she was capable of.

This didn't mean she was going to suddenly develop social skills or anything like that, that was impossible- even in a dream like this. She simply couldn't change that much of who she was so quickly. No she decided that she would train, she would be a ninja. She would help so many people- even if they weren't real. It wasn't impossible for her, because this was her dream, and she could accomplish anything, she was capable of anything! She had never felt like that before, and it was a liberating thought. She wondered if this is how everyone else felt all the time?

She knew that it would be hard, considering the detail and realism of her dream, but she didn't care. It was a beautiful world, full of potential and she wanted to make the most of it. Blurred lines between reality and fantasy bedamned.

She had always wanted to make all the sad people in the series more happy- her heart bled with each tragic story and sad happening. Perhaps that was another factor to putting her in this world? To fulfill her desire to make everything better? She knew that it would probably be impossible for the most part, but she wanted to give it a try. If it was her dream then she could do anything. Tomorrow she would go out- after chores if she had any- go to the library and tour the village. She had overheard the others talking during dinner so she knew a bit about where she was- which was in Konoha, amazingly- a few of the places nearby and some interesting things about them, mixed within other more insignificant things that she didn't want to recall. Cute boys and whatnot; she could hardly understand the appeal at this age.

Although there were things to consider about the rate of maturity in this world; considering her own age and conscious thoughts. It was difficult to comprehend.

She would worry about it tomorrow.

Yori knew that she was in trouble, when a few weeks after waking up in Konoha she ran into a lonely little blond boy with three whisker like birthmarks on his face and bright cerulean eyes. She guessed that covered the timeline question she had been pondering; the Hokage monument, while magnificent to behold, did little to tell her about current events. It was none other than Naruto himself. He was wearing a baggy white shirt with the whirlpool symbol on the front with a long sleeve green shirt underneath, longer dark blue pants that reached his shins with the popular navy blue ninja sandals upon his feet. He was just standing there. Off to the side of the playground, in it but alone, staring at the other kids playing without him. There was a look on his face that showed he was thinking, and it most certainly wasn't happy thoughts.

She couldn't stand it. It was one of the most heartbreaking things she had ever seen. Before she knew what she was doing and before she could stop herself, she had already walked up to him and grabbed the sleeve of his white shirt. He looked at her with surprise, and she had no clue what to do. She looked into his big sad eyes, and it was like her heart just melted. She was weak. Way to weak. She smiled a bit, still looking into his eyes, and tugged on his sleeve, taking him toward the swings. He looked surprised, and as though he was in a trance he followed her, stumbling a bit on his own little feet.

She stopped next to the still swinging, vacant swings. The other kids had run away as soon as she and Naruto had come near. She looked back and saw that Naruto was looking down at the ground gripping the bottom of his shirt tightly. She figured he was embarrassed about everyone else leaving like they had, knowing it was his presence that scared them away. She tugged harder on his sleeve until he sat on the swing, she then moved around until she was behind him, and started pushing. She herself had never done anything like this before, so she hoped she was doing it right. It had always seemed like fun whenever she had watched other kids do it when she was a kid, and she was often envious of others to have people to push them and have fun with them like that. Looking at Naruto's back, she realized that the tenseness that was there before that she hadn't even noticed, was practically gone.

She froze briefly, before smiling widely, and pushing even more enthusiastically. She could have sworn she just heard him laugh. It was the greatest feeling ever- a warmth exploded in her chest and squeezed her lungs. She only wished she could have seen him laugh, and wasn't stuck behind him. If it weren't for the fact that pushing someone on the swings had to be done from behind, she would dash around to the front, just to get a glance, to see if he was smiling like the laugh implied. She used her little arms as much as she could to push him up as high as the swing would go. Soon she could only grasp his feet to push, and she could hear more laughs the higher he went- it was so nice.

She was sad that it couldn't go on forever. She did her best to keep pushing even though her arms were burning and she struggled to keep them up, but it just was not to be. It had been around noon when she had approached Naruto, and she had been pushing him for about 45 minutes- it seemed as though he was still having fun, but the other kids seemed to be getting angry that they were still using the swings. She wouldn't mind really, because Naruto was having so much fun and they could always share the empty swings that were around them, but she was starting to notice that some adults were getting antsy with their kids; and that was much more worrisome than a frustrated child.

Reluctantly she decreased the power of her pushes, until Naruto began to slow down to a stop. His laughing had stopped some time ago, but the occasional giggle escaped, and now, there was nothing. If anything he was tensing up again. She felt sad at that, and when the swing stopped completely, and she went around to the front of the swing, Naruto looked at her with the most hopeful eyes she had ever seen. Weak. She was so weak. She couldn't control herself again, and grabbed his sleeve once more. She didn't know what other game there was that he might enjoy, but she would ask him.

As she dragged him away from the swings, all the other children swarmed them, fighting each other over the swings when there weren't enough for everyone. The adults as well sent one last angry look before focusing again on their charges and breaking up the few skirmishes that had broken out. It was so strange to her, but she didn't dwell on it. As they walked, well, more like as she pulled Naruto around behind her, she stopped at the corner of the playground, near the treeline, and she turned around. She steeled herself for looking into those eyes again, and even then it was hard for her to do anything once she got a good look. The manga renditions had nothing on the utter adorableness that was this young naruto. She just wanted to give him a hug- not that she hadn't wanted to when she read the manga, just that now that he was in front of her she wanted to even more.

They were possibly the most heart rendering things she had ever seen, his eyes. But she had always had a weakness for puppydog eyes. She couldn't resist anyone's, let alone Naruto's, who seemed to be a master without even knowing. He was looking at her again, under his thick eyelashes, and it was one of the hardest things she had ever done to not make an embarrassment of herself. She didn't know what to do now. She was still holding his sleeve, and she released it when she realized. Looking at him again, he gave her more of the hopeful look. She cleared her throat.

"umm… What games do you like?" she hoped she had asked the right question. She was pants at social situations and communicating and she knew it. Hence her lack of talking until now. Even in the question she had just asked, she sounded uncertain and sheepish. She looked away in embarrassment. And as such, she missed the look of shocked happiness that lit up Naruto's face.

"I like Ninja!" He had grabbed her hand and yelled this. His face held none of the sadness she had witnessed earlier. In fact it was so bright she was almost blinded. She smiled back at him, and he laughed excitedly. It seemed like a game that he would like to play, considering his massive energy stores and limitless stamina, not to mention his goals for the future. He declared that his name was Naruto Uzumaki and he was going to be Hokage, and she felt so honored to be able to witness such a thing in person- it was truly a thing to see, even so young. She wondered when precisely his dream of becoming a Hokage had even developed. Shaking the thought away quickly, she gave her name in return. She reckoned she had stars in her eyes.

He declared that the one to be the 'Enemy Ninja' in their game was to be decided by a game of rock paper scissors. She had won with paper to his rock, and so the chase began. She didn't stand much of a chance as far as speed and lasting went, but she used her head enough to evade him for a time, and then it was her turn to be 'Hokage'.

It would be a completely honest statement to say that it was turning out to be the funnest day of her life. She ran around with Naruto like a chicken with its head cut off. Screaming and laughing loudly along with him. Falling in the dirt, hiding in bushes, climbing trees, and overall running around, getting dirty and sweaty. Her plans of going to the library as she did everyday- memorising information and reading all the books, one by one- were gone. It wasn't until the sun began to sink low down in the sky that she realized that she had to go.

The matron lady seemed to have a vendetta against her specifically. She noticed that, even today, she received some of the most grueling chores; and it was all to be done by herself without assistance. Cleaning the bathrooms was one of the Lady's favorites, along with cleaning the kitchen and doing all the laundry. If it weren't for the fact that cleaning was something that she was used to and knew how to do efficiently, she would be held up for hours longer than she was already. The lady also seemed to glare at her more, and serve her the hardest, oldest rolls and the bowls of food with the least substance. Yori didn't know what it was that she had done, and so chalked it up to something that happened before her awakening.

She wouldn't let it bother her overmuch though, the things weren't as bad as they could have been. Afterall it wasn't like the Matron Lady was really fond of anyone, it was just that she hated Yori more than she hated everyone else.

Stopping next to a tree, Yori waited until Naruto caught up to her, and it didn't take long with his speed. He tackled her to the ground in his enthusiasm. He was laughing loudly and she couldn't help the giggle that escaped when they sat up and he had a branch with leaves on it sticking out proudly from his wild blonde hair. She reached up to pull it out and Naruto simply smiled the whole time with his face scrunched up and eyes squinted. She wished she could stay outside forever and play with him. As it was she knew that she was going to be coming out to spend the three free hours after dinner with him, if she could.

She hated to be the one to put an end to the fun, but it had to be done. Cautiously she put the branch to her side and looked at her hands, which she was twisting nervously at the bottom of her shirt. The same shirt she had worn almost everyday since waking up here. The orphans didn't get very many changes of cloths, and being the Matrons least favorite, she especially got very few. Clearing her throat, she clenched her hands into fists, and looked up at Naruto's face. The only times they had really talked since she asked him what games he liked, had been when they were yelling at each other, 'found you!'s or 'got you!'s and other things like that.

She knew that she would have to try her hardest and say something correctly- so as not to hurt his feelings or make him feel as though she wanted to leave, when really she wanted anything but. Exhaling, then inhaling, she talked, looking him dead in his happy eyes, which were becoming more and more confused the longer she kept quiet.

"I have to go back to eat dinner, but I promise that I'll come back after and then we will have three more hours to play before I have to go back again to sleep but then tomorrow if you can can we play again I'llwaitforyoubytheplaygroundifyes!" By the end of it she was yelling and talking really fast, she was so nervous. Looking at him through it all, she saw a crushed expression cross his face, before realization dawned and he again was happy and excited. Jumping up and down happily he agreed to wait for her at the playground tomorrow as well as wait for her until she was done with dinner. She felt so relieved there were almost no words.

Even if it was most likely bound to happen anyways, seeing as he is a key player of this world- the main character- she couldn't help but feel super happy that she had met Naruto. He would be her first friend, at least she assumed he would be her friend if they kept meeting up and playing like this. Of course she didn't want to make any assumptions, and she would make sure to ask first later if he was ok with her considering him her friend. She had never had a friend before, and she felt giddy with the thought. She felt like she was walking on clouds as she made her way back to the Orphanage.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> bit of angst? and some drama and new places I guess?
> 
> Disclaimer in the first

After spending a few more weeks in this world, things seemed to be going well. The matron still loathed her, and it seemed to be getting worse as time went on, but she was seeing Naruto every day after she finished her chores. He was always there waiting for her at the playground. It wasn't until later that things seemed to be coming to a head. She loved spending time with Naruto, and did so whenever she could, moving her reading to the night time, and during chores. Obviously she didn't get as much read or done, but she was still moving along quickly, about a book a day compared to the several large books she had been consuming per day before. She was hard-pressed to care though. Naruto was amazing and fun and he was allowing her to consider him her friend!

It was the other kids that started things down a more dangerous road. They realized that she was spending more time with the demon kid. One of them even asked her about it before and she had responded that he was her friend happily, head still whirling at the thought of having a friend and giddy with actually saying it outloud. Nobody asked her anything else for awhile. But she realized that it was getting closer and closer to the date of the festival to celebrate the defeat of the Kyuubi.

Things became more strained on the streets- not that Naruto noticed, as used to the stares as he was. She didn't mind much the stares and treatment she received for associating herself with Naruto, but she did take note. As the festival got closer, the stares became more angry and loathing. She was concerned for Naruto. Especially since that day he had excitedly informed her of his new living arrangements. By himself. Alone.

The manga never said anything, but she was scared that the villagers might do something. Not that anything had really changed since her awakening as far as she was aware, but she knew that simply by her being there things had already changed drastically. She confronted Naruto about it one afternoon, and seeing how she was still very quiet and only ever really talked except when in the spur of the moment or it was completely necessary, he had respected her begging; albeit reluctantly. He had agreed to be more careful and to avoid being seen at all, if possible-but only for a little while. He was going to be Hokage, and he would not hide from his future subjects.

She had actually hugged him when she heard that. She was so thankful. He had frozen up at first but she didn't notice it. Eventually he had returned her hug. She realized what she was doing moments after he began to hug her back, and quickly pulled away. She had never really hugged or been hugged. It was strange, but not unpleasant. By the look on Naruto's face, she could tell that he was thinking the same thing. They somewhat shyly smiled at each other, a feeling of companionship growing between them, before she had to say goodbye for dinnertime.

When she reached the orphanage, she noticed that the whole area seemed to be uncharastically still. Like a calm before the storm. Nervous, she looked around the commons room, usually the kids were all talking with one another and goofing with their friends or teaching a new kid the ropes, but there was none of that today. They were instead all sitting quietly, nervously. Occasionally they would shift uncomfortably or glance quickly at her before looking away. She had a bad feeling about this. As the ringing went off and they all left to go into the dining room, she went to follow as usual. But as she went through the doorway, a familiar large calloused hand roughly grabbed her shoulder.

Gulping and looking up, her eyes met those squinted ones of the matron. She didn't say a thing, because before she could even consider it she was being hauled away back into the now empty commons room.

"You think you can eat with them? When you associate yourself with that demon child?" The Matron said calmly in a low tone. Yori felt sweat trickle down her spine, sending chills throughout her body. She just knew that this wasn't going to end well and going off what the matron had said, she wouldn't be able to tell Naruto anything. The Matron Lady's eyes narrowed, Yori had been silent for too long.

"You don't want to answer me? Well then, I guess I'll just have to tell you. You will not be hanging around that demon anymore. Not while you reside under this roof." Yori knew then that she would be moving out. She nodded in understanding. But this seemed to frustrate the Matron even more. The Matron seemed to know exactly what she was thinking, and the she was reacting was unsatisfactory. Yori guessed that something must have snapped within the Matron.

Her relatively hong hair was grabbed and wrapped around the matrons fist, lifting her until her feet were just barely brushing the floor. Her arms came up to grip the arm that had ahold of her, to relieve some of the pressure from her scalp, but it was no use. Her hands were roughly batted away, and her hair was yanked again, she couldn't hold back the sob of pain that was ripped from her throat. Before she could reach up again, a flash of silver crossed her eye. Then her feet met the floor again, but she was not released. Her pale almost white blond hair floated around her. It's butchered waves and curls falling on the ground around her.

She tried to pull away, but the Matron still had ahold of her, hacking away at her hair like it had committed a personal sin against her. The Matron, while in her harsh blind hacking with the scissors, sliced through a bit of Yori's ear and she could not hold in the scream of pain and shock as she fought harder to escape, her short arms incapable of reaching out and stopping the Matron Lady. There were only a few more snips after that, and then she was dragged to the front door and thrown. She landed harshly on her side.

"Now your hair is just like that disgusting demon's that you hang out with. You match." Matron Lady hissed.

Cradling her profusely bleeding ear, she wondered just what was it with the Matron and her ear?! No, not the time to think those things, she needed to wash and treat her ear, and the first thing was getting it to stop bleeding. She had read so many books and still none of them could have described the pain. She knew that it wasn't anything horrible, probably just a little slice through the shell of her ear, but it hurt so much. She couldn't stop the tears from forming in her eyes. She granted herself some leeway, seeing as she was still four- about to turn five most likely, but still four.

The Matron must be really torn up about something if she had taken her anger out on Yori while she was only a four year old.

She bolted far out into the village, knowing that the library wouldn't turn her away, and she only wanted to use the bathroom. She knew they had one but she had never used it before. Actually, now that she thought about it, through the haze of pain, she realized that she had never gotten a good look at herself since coming here. She was shocked. Now that she knew to look she was a bit disappointed, because she had her hair all crazy and a part of her ear was going to look weird now. Appearances had never bothered her before, there was no reason for her to worry- she was invisible- but that didn't mean she didn't want to know what she looked like as a four year old again, in the Naruto world. What if she looked different now? She hated that she had never thought of this; she had been more focused on other things.

As she arrived at the library, her white shirt had been ruined, all on the shoulder and sleeve, and slightly down the side was stained with blood running down from her neck. She guessed nobody had stopped her on her rush here because they didn't recognize her or didn't notice her or her predicament. Her hand still clutching her ear was slippery and covered with blood, and it had run all the way down her forearm as well, dripping off her elbow. She worried about getting the inside of the library dirty- the librarians were such nice people after all, they didn't seem to mind her coming in everyday.

She snuck in successfully; however, when she reached the bathrooms, she realized that she had nothing to cover her ear with. No band-aid, or bandages. She put that thought off in favor of using the sink to clean up. Thankfully, the bleeding was slowing to a drip, and her hand had successfully done its job of preventing too much bleeding. It simply looked horrifying, compared to how much damage that had actually happened. She knew, mentally, that ears bled a lot, but it didn't stop her cringe at the mess. She had no other shirts now, considering she couldn't go back to the orphanage. Using lots of paper towels and taking her shirt off and putting it in another sink to wash and soak, she went about cleaning her neck and arms off, everything around that area. It was when she looked up that she saw it.

Her own reflection. She guessed it was a bit of a disappointment. She hadn't really changed all that much, except for the fact that her hair was lighter here, more of a white color with different pale blond and orange tints, and it was more curly than her former waves- at least that was what she deduced from what was left of her hair. It was spiking all wound her head in loose curls, some of it wavy other parts corkscrewing. Overall it was a bunch of different lengths and it was a mess; it was painful to look at really. Her eyes had only slightly changed as well, they were slightly bigger and had a reddish tint, no longer dark brown, but a more burgundy; a fact which was impossible to really notice unless you looked closely. Adding the fact that she looked horrible at the moment, what with one side of her head having hair matted with water and blood as she attempted to clean it, and her eyes were red and swollen, bright with yet unshed tears, she wondered at nobody noticing her.

Perhaps it was that people simply don't see the things they don't want to see.

Considering the fact that she was four, she was impressed with herself for handling the situation so nicely and only shedding a few tears, right in the beginning. It had hurt incredibly, and half of it was mental- overthinking about it- and the shock of it had thrown her; but she had come back. It still hurt but it was bearable. Looking at her small ear itself, she saw that she was right in her assumption that it wasn't that bad a wound. It would seem as though the Matron had only clipped it, Yori was more thankful that the Lady hadn't taken off a chunk of her ear to go with her hair. She considered herself lucky all in all. At least she still had all of her ear. It looked as though she had a straight horizontal scratch on the shell of her ear, pointing inwards toward her face. It was thin enough that if it wasn't bleeding still it would resemble nothing more than a paper cut. Yori had to wonder at the scissors the Matron had used.

Sniffing loudly, she moved to check on her shirt. It was permanently stained, seeing as it was white, but at least it wasn't as horrifying now. She had managed to scrub most of the blood out, but there was still orangish red all over the shirt. She kept at wringing the material, until there was only clear water coming from it and being washed down the drain. Even then she gave it a few more squeezes, just to make sure that she had gotten all that she could. Wiping at her neck and shoulders and body again just to make sure that she wouldn't be getting her freshly cleaned shirt dirty again, she grabbed a paper towel to take with her and left the bathroom. Her white, stained and sticky shirt thankfully not as seethrough as to be obscene- rather it was decently large and stained enough to reserve her youthful modesty.

She made her way out of the library quietly, and when she made it back to the street, she remembered that she had somewhere to be. She always met Naruto after dinner, and she was almost certain that was late. It felt like she had spent an eternity in that bathroom; looking at the sun setting, she could only panic at what Naruto must be thinking.

She dashed as quickly as she could to the playground they always met at. Every second that passed grated on her nerves horribly. She couldn't believe she had let time get so far out of her hands. As soon as she made it to the playground she looked around desperately. Her chest was heaving, and her ear was throbbing painfully. She pressed the paper towel to it without thinking, and continued scanning the playground for a familiar blond head. Finding it, sitting at the swings she had first pushed him on, he looked disheartened. She couldn't take it.

"Naruto!" She yelled as she ran over. His head snapped up, and he was looking at her in surprise. She stopped in front of him, and he looked confused,

"Yori? What-?" he was looking at her hair, and she jolted, knowing that she was going to have to come up with a convincing lie quick. She couldn't just tell him that the Matron Lady had hacked her hair off, cutting her ear in the process before kicking her out, then add in that it was all incited by her association with Naruto. That would break his heart. She stuttered out the first things that came to mind, looking at his own almost matching crazy hair and thinking on the Matrons parting words,

"U-Uh well, that is… My hair, I cut my hair… And I wanted it to.. I wanted it to look like yours! Yeah, I wanted my hair to be like yours, but when I was cutting it I messed up because I didn't have a mirror, and… I cut my ear! Look see!" She pulled the damp paper towel away from her ear, and showed him the seemingly innocent cut. He looked dumbfounded, but she wasn't finished

"And it bled, like, a lot! and then the Matron Lady caught me, and she kicked me out of the orphanage." The last part was said softly. She wasn't sure what to do about that last part, and how it would work into her getting into the ninja academy later, or where she would be staying now. Perhaps she would end up in the orphanage that Naruto had stayed in until he was kicked out? But that orphanage was the nicest one in the village, and it only let in kids who had some sort of money backing them. Nothing at all like her orphanage that she had just been kicked out of, which was overcrowded and underfunded, full of kids without last names or any heritage to claim. All she herself had was the name Yori.

She was pulled from her thoughts abruptly, when Naruto grabbed her shoulders with a glint in his eye.

"Yori-chan, I liked your hair before but it makes me really happy that you want to look like me. Don't do it again though, ok? Your ear looks like it really hurts alot. And If you were kicked out of the orphanage, then you're like me, and I bet that old man wouldn't mind if you lived with me from now on. It would be like we're family!" Naruto's eyes, which had started out serious, gradually changed until they were excited and sparkling. He grabbed ahold of her hand and dragged her along after him. She followed him dumbly, not knowing what to say, and putting the paper towel back to her ear. A family? Living with Naruto? Wouldn't that make him like her brother?

Unwillingly, a warm, excited feeling sprung up in her torso, giving her stomach butterflies, and making her heart beat speed up. She gripped his hand back, squeezing tightly, and smiling widely. Living with Naruto? Her friend? That would be like a slumber party, only it would never end! She had never been to a slumber party. It sounded like so much fun. And that they would be like family sounded even better!

She felt so excited she forgot all about the things that this could change, or about the effect this would have on the story line, she simply thought about how great it would be if things really did work out and she began to live with Naruto. All the books she had been reading, some and most of them about ninjas and others about the world she now lived in- she could finally use those books. She could start her training, she could start training with Naruto! It would be so much more fun, and a lot less lonely if she had someone to train with.

Arriving at the Hokage monument snapped her back, she had forgotten that Naruto called the Hokage old man. She had thought it cute and appropriate in the series, but after reading up so much on this world, she knew that it was a big deal. The Hokage wasn't just anyone, he was the complete leader of the village, almost- he commanded the ninja force and he himself was the strongest ninja in the village, as the Hokage! Taking into account all the things he had done in his life, not only as the Hokage, and she was scared stiff. He could take her life before she blinked, or even knew what was happening. It was that easy to end her dream. She seriously didn't want that… Looking at Naruto, she knew that she really didn't want that. Even though she knew that it was all fake, it was realer to her than her past life. She experienced so much more here, on all sides of the emotional spectrum. And she had a friend.

To say she was nervous would be to make a gross understatement. When Naruto simply barged his way through the building- and into the Hokage's office- ignoring yells at him and disregarding the racket he was causing, he strutted right up to the Hokage's desk. He was barely able to see over the edge of it with his small stature. If she was being honest and the situation was any less dire, she would have had a conniption over just how cute the image was. Little Naruto barely able to peek over the desk to glower at the Hokage fiercely. As it was, the Hokage raising one gray brow in question wasn't helping.

Naruto puffed himself up like a peacock and pulled her up to stand closer next to him, drawing the Hokage's sharp gaze to her, and then he started talking… well more like demanding,

"Old man! Yori is my friend and because she has nowhere to stay, she will be living with me now! Also, because she is living with me now, I've come to ask for missions, so that I can make money for the two of us! Seeing as I will be Hokage someday, anything you have for me I can handle, believe it!" Naruto banged on his chest with a clenched fist a few times, just to prove that what he was saying was fact. He had a determined look in his eyes that she would have admired in any other situation. Now she just felt like he was being a dummy.

The Hokage's brow, if it was possible, went up even higher as Naruto talked. He smiled a bit before taking a drag on a pipe that she could have sworn just appeared out of nowhere, because it wasn't there not one second ago. Where the heck did it come from?

"Oh? And you do know that I can not give any missions to someone who has not graduated from the academy? Also, who is your friend here, and why does she have no place to stay?" As he spoke the Hokage's gaze once again went from Naruto to her. She gulped, but didn't look away. She tightened her grip on Naruto's hand, her own palms getting sweaty with both nerves and heat. Naruto- the jewel that he is- didn't seem to mind the icky sweat slicking their joined hands, and he also squeezed, as though in reassurance. At least she interpreted it as reassurance, because that's the effect that it had. The tightness in her chest, and her heart in her throat seemed so much less suffocating now; even if she was, honest to goodness, having a staring match with the third Hokage.

"That's nothing old man, I could pass that place no problem! I don't need it to do missions, after all I'm going to be the Hokage! And her name is Yori and why she doesn't have a place to stay is none of your business- Believe it!" Naruto promptly blew a very loud and impressive raspberry at the old man. Despite the fact that Yori felt about ready to faint at Naruto's behavior, Sarutobi only seemed amused. There was a twinkle in his eye as he turned to look at her again.

"And would the pretty young lady like to tell me herself why she no longer has a place to stay?" Despite the fact that he was obviously amused, Yori could feel the weight of his gaze heavily on her shoulders. He had an aura around him that was very intimidating to her four year old, helpless self. She couldn't even fight off a civilian with scissors, for goodness sake!

"Well… The Matron Lady kicked me out of the orphanage because I cut my hair and my ear... and then... I got blood everywhere…" Belatedly, she realized how ridiculous that sounded. She knew that Naruto believed her but the Hokage would not fall for such a bold faced lie. Naruto probably saw her excuse as valid because of the way his old matron lady had treated him; he would have- and had- been kicked out for much less.

Looking up, she realized that she was correct. A steely undertone had taken residence in the elder man's eyes, and he was staring right at her with her butchered hair and sliced ear. No doubt she still looked horrible, even if her shirt was almost dry and her hair was not so matted, actually almost dry on the side she had washed. She broke contact first, and looked at the ground before glancing up at Naruto's determined face again. She didn't care what the Hokage did, she could not let Naruto find out the real reason she wasn't allowed to return to the orphanage.

"Hmmmm… I see." The Hokage said. He sounded tired and old all of a sudden. Whipping her head up away from Naruto to look at him in surprise, she saw something there when their eyes met. He looked like decades had suddenly been added to his visage, and his shoulders looked more haunched than before, like the weight of those years was bearing down on him. His eyes held nothing but understanding. It was a little bit eerie to be honest. She had no doubt that he had figured out, or had a general idea of why it was that she was no longer allowed at the orphanage. She looked at Naruto again, seeing him look slightly confused at the nonverbal communication going on between her and the old man, but no less determined as he was when he first stepped foot into the office with her in tow. It was an extraordinary sight, from where she was standing.

She looked back at the Hokage and smiled. She tried to convey with her eyes that it was worth it and that she was fine. Naruto was always going to be worth it. He was her friend- he actually let her call him her friend- and also the first thing that he thought to do once he heard that she had no place to stay was offer to let her stay with him, then proceed to do what he could to make sure that it could happen. At four, almost five years old, she was astounded. She guessed it had to have something to do with the world. In her own world, there was never this much maturity at this age. Now that she thought about it, didn't Kakashi make it into the academy at four, then graduate at five? Before moving on to become a chuunin at six? It was impossible… just like how she found herself in this dream.

The Hokage just looked slightly shocked for a moment, before smiling back.

"Naruto, how about instead of taking missions, I give Yori her own allowance once a month? Just like you. You are orphans after all, and I am your Hokage. If you want to get more money for the two of you guys, you'll have to work hard to get into the ninja academy at eight then graduate and become genin. If you can do that then I'll give you all the missions you want. How does that sound?" Yori didn't know about Naruto, but that sounded almost too good to be true!

"That sounds perfect!" She agreed quickly, smiling widely and as Naruto opened his big mouth to protest she grabbed him and dragged him behind her out of the building. He whined, but he didn't really fight her that hard. She would never be able to beat him in strength if it came down to it- after all, he was Naruto Uzumaki, and he was going to be Hokage someday. Smiling so big she thought her face might split in half, she dragged Naruto until they were both standing in front of the Hokage building before letting go of his hand, turning around, and then tackling him in a bear hug.

"Can you believe it!? Were going to be living together! I'm so happy; we get to train together and were going to join the ninja academy together, and then we're going to be ninja and then you're going to be Hokage and were going to be just like family!" She was jumping up and down and shaking in her excitement. Halfway through her squealed statements, Naruto joined in her hug and also started jumping alongside her, at her final statement about him becoming Hokage and them being family he screamed out a loud,

"HELL-YEAH! BELIEVE IT!" She could only laugh even more in response. To think that the day had taken such a complete one-eighty. She didn't even care anymore that she had hardly any hair left and that her ear was throbbing. The future looked so bright from where she was standing!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Did I mention this was a shameless fixit fic

Months passed. Yori got settled down in Naruto's apartment, and she was there when he really came into his obsession with ramen. She got into the habit of cleaning the place. It was more instinctual at this point, and she didn't even realize she was doing it half the time as she studied. It was calming, and gave her something to do with her hands. Cleaning wasn't even a chore to her anymore, and since the first cleansing there was hardly anything much left to clean since she continued to clean messes as they were made. Naruto had been sheepish at the original state of his apartment, but within the hour she had cleaned up everything until it was shining, there was a pleasant fragrance in the air, and you could safely eat off the floors. All with what few forgotten cleaning supplies Naruto had stowed away. Naruto had gazed at her in astonished awe. It made her feel good to have him give her that look, but also embarrassed. She had never received such appreciation before for simply cleaning.

Things had really begun to get risky when the Hokage visited one month to check up on them and see how they were faring. She had talked to him about the Uchiha police force. She had sat him and Naruto down at their homey little kitchen table and she had prepared tea, standing on a footstool that gave her better access to the stove and the cabinets. The thoughts had been circulating in her mind for a while now, since every time she went out, she couldn't help but notice the Uchiha patrolling around, going about their work. Ever since she ran face first into one that first time, she couldn't help but pay more attention.

Boy was there tension. It was subtle, but it was there, in the way the civilians eyed them, and although it was but a seed at the moment, she could understand how things had come to end the drastic way they had in the manga. If nothing was done, the tension and hostility would grow, and Itachi would end up having to kill his clan, and Sasuke would have to live his life in the dark and in pain. That was the last thing she wanted to happen.

In the manga, the Uchiha massacre was something easily acknowledged, but while she was here, she saw them. She watched them laugh and smile with their families- when they managed to let some emotion show, darned 'Uchiha mask'- she watched them eat and buy groceries and walk around and do their work. It humanized them, and she couldn't imagine them all being slaughtered in one night. All simply because of the rumor that the Uchiha clan had a hand in the Kyuubi attack- Fugaku was a hard, power-hungry man, and when things came to be the way they did, with his people unwelcome in their own home, he had taken drastic measures yes, but not entirely unfounded. She knew of many men who would not have lasted half as long.

The fact that people could even suspect such a thing as the Uchiha being involved in such an attack was preposterous, they had lost people that night as well- everyone in the village had lost someone, be they family, friend, or acquaintance. Even if it was true that a man with the Sharingan had unleashed the Kyuubi on the village, he had nothing to do with the clan living there currently. She supposed it was the mind's tendency to see things where there is nothing to be seen; just as the mind can refuse realities, it can create a new one. She knew that she thought ridiculous things at night in bed, and by morning they seemed preposterous- but while she was in bed, in the dark, nothing was more frighteningly real.

So, she shared her views and ideas with the Hokage. She knew that he was against the massacre in the manga, and that it had saddened him greatly to have to bare such a thing under his leadership as Hokage.

"Hokage-sama, I think that there is something wrong between the police and the villagers." She wasn't the most skilled orator, very far from it in fact. She wanted to slap herself the second the tactless words left her mouth, for the Hokage choked on his tea and his eyes widened comically. She uncomfortably watched as the old man coughed and Naruto slapped him unhelpfully on the back. Wheezing the Hokage asked her,

"And what makes you say that?" He had finally almost gotten control of himself once again, and he was looking at her with a disguised sort of sadness and caution. She knew that she would have to be very careful. One did not just know the storyline, so to say. She cleared her throat,

"They look at them, the civilians I mean, with different eyes. There's doubt and they don't trust the Uchiha anymore. It's been getting worse and it makes me sad." At this she looked at Naruto, who had a peculiar look on his face. Out of them all, he would know the most about being subject to looks from the civilian population.

"While there is a lack of understanding and a disconnect, there is always the chance to reclaim bonds and trust I think, though! It's not too late, I think that things can still be amended, right? Nip the seed in the bud." She made cutting motions with her middle and index finger, imitating scissors; she was worried for a moment that she had said too much, but it was all her honest feelings. Might as well plow ahead, while the Hokage still had an empty look on his face. Who knew if he would suddenly have a change of heart towards her and she would wake up the next morning only to find herself deep in the depths of the Torture and Interrogation department.

He was listening intently though. She knew that he had to be aware of these things, he was the Hokage, and he had to be making an effort right?

"Maybe have some trust exercises? But don't tell anyone that's what they are, you know. Perhaps you can make the Kyuubi festival have more police participation; maybe have them more publically take out more villains, or have a family picnic with the Uchiha and the civilian population alike. I think that the wall forming between the Uchiha and the rest of the population will be very bad. The Uchiha are no longer people, they are a 'They' and it dehumanizes them. It's like a 'them' vs 'us' sort of mentality. It separates them even more from the village and creates a larger gap in understanding, and willingness to understand. And that's really bad I think."

Yori knew that she was likely only delaying the inevitable, but she had to try. Maybe if there was more time things could be changed, and not everyone would have to die. If the relations were better with the civilians, things would be less precarious. If the Uchiha felt that they were valued and one with the village, they wouldn't feel the need to rebel and try to take it over. She wasn't completely naive, she also knew that a good majority of the massacre was politics, but parliament played a large roll no matter what the government- if it didn't then the society would end in ruin, and she knew that all the important leaders in Konoha at least understood that much. At least, she hoped that they did.

She knew all this and she hoped that the Hokage would do something, she knew it must be really hard, but as the Hokage he could make things happen, right? The Uchiha was largely ninja and military based, the Hokage had to have some considerable amount of influence, of that she was almost certain. She stared unwaveringly at the Hokage. Maybe if she could communicate through her eyes the importance, without coming out and telling him that she knew the future and practically everything about everything, she wouldn't have to be in danger, and risk anyone finding out her secret while she attempted to make things better.

She jolted as she wondered if maybe her vocabulary was a bit much- as well as her comprehension? But no, she knew that people like Kakashi and Itachi were already having such conversations at her age, but then they were prodigies and it wasn't all that surprising that they were so advanced, and-

"You are correct." after saying this the Hokage unleashed a heavy sigh. His eyes still held some amount of cautiousness, but he just seemed resigned. His body language seemed sort of defeated, as though he had been avoiding the inevitable for far too long, and that made her worried. Yori wondered what the resignation was all about. She hoped she hadn't incited something horrible in her attempt to fix things, like making the massacre happen sooner. She would never get over it if that happened and it was her fault.

"There has been much tension between the clan and the villagers, however, I wanted to have trust in the people and in the will of fire; that things would straighten themselves out. That people could reach forgiveness and understanding without my help. I felt that if they did that would be much better than my interfering. I suppose that it was wishful thinking of an old man on my part." The Hokage seemed to pull himself up and back together as he was talking. He was sat next to Naruto, who was being uncharacteristically quiet.

Yori empathized with the Hokage. He no longer wanted the position of Hokage, but there was nobody trustworthy or ready enough to willingly take the position for him. As such he was stuck in the roll, leading a village into a new generation, when he was very much still apart of the old one. She could sympathize with him, wanting to leave the future of Konoha in the hands of Konoha, but he had to do something. Of that she was certain. How things had came to such a head before she had no clue, maybe by the time the Hokage tried to do something in the manga, it was too late? Perh-

"AGGGGH, ALL THIS DEPRESSING TALK IS TOO CONFUSING! OLD MAN, JUST MAKE THEM GET ALONG ALREADY AND EAT SOME RAMEN OR SOMETHING!" Naruto screamed out suddenly, causing Yori to jump and spill her cooling tea all over herself and the table. Looking down forlornly at the mess, Yori mourned the waste of good tea. The Hokage as well seemed surprised by Naruto's sudden interruption, but he more so seemed amused and grateful. Naruto had a way about him to break the tension as though it was never there in the first place. It was natural and unique to Naruto, and it made her even more grateful to call him her friend. She could only guess that her mentioning of the villagers' eyes had distracted Naruto from interrupting her and the Hokage's discussion.

With one final fond look at Naruto the Hokage stood up to make his leave. The tea that was not spilled was lukewarm by now, and the Hokage was making time in his already busy schedule to be there with them in the first place. He made his way to the door, and said his goodbyes to Naruto; then he looked at her, and their eyes met.

"And goodbye to you as well, Miss Yori, you seem to be much smarter than I thought. I'll have to keep a closer eye on you from now on, and thank you." Due to Naruto's scandalized screaming about how extremely smart Yori was, Yori could barely hear the last bit that the Hokage said. She wasn't sure if she should feel relieved that the Hokage didn't seem to suspect anything overly much, or if she should feel terrified that the watches he undoubtedly had on her and Naruto already were going to become more extensive. She ultimately decided that she was just grateful she wasn't strapped down in the T&I department, with a Yamanaka picking her mind and memories apart one by one.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok so whats happening in the meantime as well as a birthday- as you can see this story is a bit slow but it makes me happy, and I decided to break it up and post it on here so that y'all can enjoy it too maybe-oh and congratulations if you've made it this far I'm touched

She and naruto got into the habit of going out every day to training ground four, which was on the outskirts of the village, and just so happened to be not too ridiculously far from the apartment. It was an open field, with a small pond and trees surrounding it, putting the shape of the field as a sort of warped oval. There were some large and sharp rocks in and around the pond, and, for some reason she couldn't fathom, there were two rope swings. One over near the pond that she hoped nobody had ever used to jump into the pond for the very real and likely chance of being impaled, as well as there was one high up in a large tree, so far up off the ground, it was impossible for any civilian to even consider reaching it.

Of course, Naruto had taken it as a challenge, and by the end of their first week of training, Naruto had managed to reach it and swing on it. Yori about had a heart attack when she saw him standing up and swinging on the swing while laughing uproariously. She doubted he would die or anything so dramatic if he happened to fall from that height, what with him being a Jinchūriki, but it didn't stop her heart from jumping into her throat and squeaking in alarm. She still worried that something could go wrong, and even if the chance of death was nearly void, she still didn't want him to get hurt. Nevertheless, the swing and getting to it became one of Naruto's favorite 'training exercises'- simultaneously it became one of Yoris least favorite. She swore that Naruto was giving her gray hairs, and she wasn't even in the double digits of age!

Yori, despite having a wealth of knowledge at her disposal, knew that she would have to start small with training. She was in the body of a four year old, the chances of her body being able to handle intense training were very slim. Naruto on the other hand, he would probably be fine, but even he had to learn the basics. A good foundation was the key to becoming a strong fighter- was what all the books she had read said. As such, she trained with Naruto, and she didn't feel like she was holding him back. He was going to surpass her in the future, and they wouldn't be able to train together as often because he was so much stronger and more capable than her, but for now, she knew that she was helping him. Even if as a ninja she knew that she would never be that strong, she wanted to help.

And so the training began. Because they were learning the basics, and because she knew what all they had to do, both in theory and in fact, she was the unspoken leader of their training. Naruto had no problem letting her take charge and determine what they should do to get stronger. Upon questioning one day when she realized he was being unordinarily complacent, he simply stated that she was smart and all those books she read were amazing. He trusted her to know what she was doing, and he didn't doubt her for a second. She had teared up and almost cried at that- snot dripping and everything- and Naruto had had a miniature panic attack at her apparent distress. Looking back, it was absolutely adorable, and such a heartwarming thing that even thinking about it made her cheeks warm and had her feeling all sappy inside. Having a friend, especially a friend like Naruto was the most amazing thing ever.

Training to be a ninja, although not necessarily needed, required supplies. Supplies such as shuriken and kunai and targets. Perhaps a dummy, tape, gauze, rope and a first aid kit were also required. Normally these things would be easily acquired in a ninja village- even considering their age- little ninja in training were purchasing these things all the time; however, Naruto was the Kyuubi's Jinchūriki, and the village despised him. Yori was fully aware of this fact, and actively tried to keep him away from their hateful gazes; away from exposure to those whom clearly loathed his very existence. She couldn't keep him away all the time though, and he was still exposed to their eyes; but she liked to think that she took the edge off, got rid of the brunt of the worst of it. Perhaps this was wishful thinking on her part, but it made her feel better.

So, due to the villagers' distinct hate for Naruto and anything to do with Naruto, it was very hard to purchase anything in the village. Obviously, the job fell to her to buy things. Naruto wasn't all that aware of the fact that she was subtly buying and taking care of purchasing things when he wasn't looking, and she wanted it to stay that way. Whenever he even questioned anything, 'are we out of milk?' and such things, she popped in and said that it was already taken care of. No way was she letting Naruto near those people and their cruel tendances.

Because she was so closely associated with Naruto, even she was a source of frustration to the villagers. Their hatred seemed to transfer to her when Naruto wasn't around; she wondered if they could tell that she was protecting Naruto from them. Perhaps they were angry that they couldn't hurl abuse at Naruto anymore because they didn't come across him as often. Anywho, because they were so hateful of Naruto and anything to do with him, when they recognized her they attempted to charge her extra for things like food and ninja supplies. It was difficult to even find a store that would let her in.

It was only after she had hunted down one of the Anbu following her and persuaded them to help her buy things that things settled down. After flashing the Anbu to all of the store owners, they had become much more fair and complacent.

She actually was shown by the Anbu where she could get the best deals and what not, as a lucky bonus. Overall, it was a great experience. She had purchased all the items needed for training, and then some. Every now and then when she needed to restock she would bring along an Anbu, just to remind people. She wasn't all that fond of scaring them and manipulating the people like that, but they were being mean for no reason, and she needed to live, and she needed Naruto to be well fed and happy. His happiness was her happiness. Her emotional stability rested largely on Naruto, she had grown so attached. It scared her slightly- a lot.

Training was easy then. In the beginning before she had considered using the Anbu to her advantage, things had been more rough as far as versatility went for training; but she took care of it, and the look on Naruto's little face when she showed him all their new goodies was worth its weight in gold, or in ninja terms, chakra metal.

So, everyday she had a different exercise topic that they would train and study. Mondays were physical training, Tuesdays aim training, and Wednesdays were for meditation and study. Thursdays and Fridays were split with a combination of ninjutsu, stealth and trap making, it was also a way she could teach strategy and battle tactics to Naruto, seeing as he was a more learn by experience and actions sort of person. The weekends were spent with Saturday being focused on chakra and control, and Sunday was a day they did whatever and played around. Naruto's least favorite day was Wednesday, seeing as he couldn't sit still to save his life, and his most favorite day was split between Sunday which he got to play all day with Yori and then end it with a trip to Ichiraku, or the days in which they practiced ninjutsu and traps, which were Thursdays and Fridays.

Naruto was frighteningly proficient at setting traps and sneaking around- she guessed it came as a result of his upbringing- er, pranks. Some of the things he came up with were pure evil genius. She doubted that a Jounin could escape some of the theoretical traps and pranks Naruto came up with sometimes. He didn't yet know how to configure some of his devious ploys though, and for that Yori was slightly grateful. Heaven help the victims when he finally learned math- for under her tutelage, he was learning fast.

She felt a sort of helpless pity fill her soul at the display before her, namely one Uzumaki Naruto laughing maniacally and rubbing his hands together as yet another one of his traps was laid out flawlessly. If it weren't for the fact that Yori demanded that since it was training he only use the training shuriken and non lethal things, she was sure that Naruto would have created a literal ninja death trap.

Shuddering at that, Yori thought on how things were going so well. If one could ignore the fact that she was working behind the scenes to lessen the tension between the Uchiha clan and the villagers, and miraculously things seemed to be getting better, things were great. She had not realized how hard it was to influence such stubborn people from afar. Both the villagers and the Uchiha seemed unwilling to budge when it came to being social with one another, and communicating

She was determined however, and she would help things. The Hokage was also making an effort, she could tell. There was a lot of more official, forced mingling between the two groups of people. She was using many different tactics herself to try and get the people together, and the Hokage was really helping to move things along. She would do things like she used to in the dreamlike past, before her life here. She, whenever she had time away from Naruto and their training, would encourage the pairing of people who seemed to have compatible personalities. Such as causing a disturbance somewhere around a certain shop enough for the person to call the officer on patrol that she knew of, and then she would make her escape before they arrived. She would then watch the goings on.

She felt bad for her actions, but she never really caused anyone any trouble or lasting harm. She was mostly just loud and annoying and occasionally a 'thief'. She always dropped the things and never actually stole anything, but she still felt bad. And her reputation was horrible, not that anyone hated her any more than they already did before, it simply cemented their opinions of her. it made them feel justified. The one time she had broken something accidentally, there had been a perfect replica on the person's doorstep by morning as well as some pastries that Yori knew that person had a weakness for.

Her actions seemed to be working, and despite all her guilt and self loathing at the things she did, she felt nothing but overwhelming happiness when she would check up and see the close friendships forming. She could even see a few budding romances. It was a great feeling, and she was often observed hunched behind a corner with her groceries giggling in happiness while she people watched. Slowly but surely, relations were improving and her and the Hokage's hard work was paying off. Just the other day she had viewed some of the villagers entering the clan compound. Something that before would have been inconceivable and not allowed at all.

Time flew by, and before Yori knew it another Kyuubi festival came around. Marking Naruto's sixth birthday. Because Yori didn't know her own birthday, and she was mostly sure that the Matron hadn't either since she was one of those kids that had simply been unloaded at the orphanage randomly. She could guess that it was the same as her last one, but she didn't know that one either, she had never bothered celebrating it and he mother had not given birth to her in the hospital and so her birth certificate was questionable and not accurate. When she told Naruto this, that she didn't know, over his huge birthday cake shaped like a bowl of ramen that she had baked herself, he had decided that from then on she would have the same birthday as him. He promised that he would have a present for her soon because he didn't have one then at that time.

She had surprised Naruto for his birthday. She had invited all the Anbu people that followed them, as well as the Hokage and the people from Ichiraku Ramen. She had extended an invitation to their landlady, however she never showed. Their landlady was one of those who was more indifferent towards Naruto, but still, no love was lost. It made Yori slightly sad, however she was ecstatic when everyone else showed up. Teuchi and his daughter Ayame even took a night off from their ramen stand to be there. All the Anbu she had asked also showed up, even if they were all still in uniform and were guarding the Hokage. She had showed them all to the kitchen and told them to wait to eat the cake.

She proceeded to hand all the guests party poppers and hats, and told them to be quiet as she turned the lights off because Naruto would be there soon. They all seemed amused at her attitude- even the anbu- but she was so excited she couldn't bring herself to react. Yori had sent Naruto on a safe 'training exercise' scavenger hunt, that would lead him home and she knew that any minute he would be back and victorious. The second he slammed into the apartment and into the attached kitchen, she turned the lights on and popped her poppers with everyone else and yelled 'surprise!'. Naruto had been very surprised. Maybe a little too surprised.

The last thing she had expected was for him to start to cry. He hid it as best he could, put on a wobbly determined brave face, but he was definitely crying. Dropping her things she had moved toward him immediately and panicked around him, while everyone else watched sympathetically. She had planned the whole thing because she wanted to make him happy- not sad! She managed to calm him with hugs and panicked gibberish, and the party proceeded with a happy, loud, and tearstained Naruto. His presents and cake had both been delightful to him, and Yori was the happiest person in the world at that time.

So when he had asked her birthday and she had revealed that she didn't honestly know it seemed to be an obvious thing for him to do. She had almost shed a tear herself at his words, but she just barely managed to keep control of herself. Sniffling slightly into the elbow of her sleeve. She had missed the Hokage's brief contemplative look throughout this conversation.

Overall it was a beautiful evening full of laughter and fun. She later noticed some shrewd looks from the Hokage, and when he eventually had a conversation with her, he told her about how he had heard about what she had been doing. She had blushed scarlet, and looked away from him, at which he laughed. She knew that he must have been aware of what she had been up to because of the Anbu, however she also couldn't help but be embarrassed when she was confronted so directly about it. She liked to think nobody was aware of her machinations to get the village on better relations with the Uchiha.

After a few words and a head pat, the conversation had ended and the party had also ended not to long after that. She and Naruto had slept together in his same bed that night, cuddled together under the covers as they had fallen asleep while talking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not too happy with this bit, but the next bits I enjoyed writing much more


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> School and time-skips some bonding and emotions and cheesy bad teachers... so much cheese and ham beware

Ever since then, time and training seemed to fly by. She and Naruto were freshly eight now and ready to take on the ninja academy. She felt nervous, despite the fact that she had done her best to ensure that they would be more prepared than any others. She and Naruto already knew the basics of all she knew they would be taught, but then again she had gotten all this from books. What if the academy was different? Despite being aware of how ridiculous she was being, Yori couldn't help but feel nervous. Naruto was the opposite.

Naruto was bouncing off the walls from the second they received their school supply list. Yori had taken care of the supplies long before they even got the list, but the slip of official paper they received only made things more real and final. For Yori this meant doubt and nervousness, and for Naruto it meant excitement and confidence.

"I'm going to breeze through this academy, and I'll be the Hokage in no time! Right Yori? You're going to be an awesome ninja right beside me, and were going to kick butt together! Believe it!" Naruto would continue to make a ruckus, and Yori would sternly say she wasn't so sure and scold Naruto for thinking that being Hokage was going to be so easy, to which he would confidently respond that for all those hard complicated stuffs, he had Yori there to help him- flustering her into flattered silence. It was a circle and it went on through training to the first day of academy.

Naruto and Yori knew their way to the academy by heart already- they had visited many times, in order to get a good look at the students, their teachers, and what they were doing; to see if maybe they could do the same to better prepare themselves. The chakra training exercises with the leaf and what not had been mind numbing and frustrating, but she managed it; and then had to tie Naruto to a tree to keep him still and practicing. The day he finally managed to cut the leaf, was a momentous day indeed. Her money pouch winced just thinking about how much ramen she and Naruto had indulged in.

Moving on. She and Naruto had woken up bright and early, to be extra sure that they would make it on time for their first day. Even Naruto confessed to having butterflies. It was as they set out, after eating a small signature Yori breakfast, that something occurred to her. How would the teachers treat Naruto? At this thought she stumbled beside Naruto, making him laugh and tease her; but she couldn't comprehend a word he was saying. If he was going to a ninja school, and the teachers were all ninja- chunins to be exact- then certainly they wouldn't be like the villagers. They were teachers and their duty was to teach the younger generation to succeed them, they wouldn't be biased toward an innocent kid like Naruto right? They were ninjas and they had to understand fuuinjutsu more than the average civilian- Right?! They were Ninja's!

Yori couldn't help but repeat these things over and over in her head- all of her first day excitement and jitters replaced with foreboding. She would not stand for the unequal treatment of her most precious person. Naruto was jumping along beside her the whole time, chattering about this and that, and she noticed that the early rising civilians were giving their customary glares and mutters. She and Naruto had learned over time to ignore them, so much so that it wasn't even a footnote anymore. However, Yori couldn't help but be more aware of it this day- thinking about if her and Naruto's teachers would have the same reactions.

She didn't even notice when they got to the school, her body on autopilot as they made their way into the building. Naruto an excited ball of sunshine the whole way, and she an overcast rain cloud. As she followed Naruto into their classroom- she had made sure before they left that he knew the class number so he wouldn't get lost and be late, just in case she wasn't there for some reason- Naruto seemed to finally notice something was off about her behavior. Noticing that there was more to it than simple first day nervousness.

They were the only two in the classroom, seeing as they were almost an entire hour early. It was the generic ninja academy classroom, with the blackboard at the front and the rows of desks rising into the back. As they were making their way to these desks Naruto stopped- causing her to bump into his back and stumble backwards quite ungracefully. He turned around with a concerned look on his face. Yori almost felt the need to cover her eyes. He was using his big baby blue eyes on her, giving her a perfectly executed, slightly teary puppy dog look. He had learned- the maniacal, clever fox- that when he used that look he could get her to do practically anything his little heart desired. She gulped in nervousness, a nervous sweat building up under her clothes the longer he subjected her to the look and didn't say anything.

"Yori" Naruto finally said, breaking his uncharacteristic silence, sparing her at last

"Y-Yes!" she replied immediately, eyes glued to his mournful expression- he looked so sad. How could she make him make such an expression- his face was one meant for smiles and happiness.

"What's wrong, you're acting weird." when Naruto finished this question, he added in a complementary lip tremble, and poor Yori was lost.

"I-I was just thinking." she attempted to evade, but Naruto was having none of it

"What were you thinking? Can't you tell me? I thought we were supposed to tell each other everything…" Naruto glanced at the ground, his blue eyes filling up even more with tears, and Yori began to panic. What would she do?! She didn't want to tell him that she was scared of how his teachers would treat him- how terrified she was that they would be biased and hurt Naruto's grades and thus his chances at becoming a genin. She knew that in the original show, she knew that he had failed the academy three times before he even made it to genin, and even then it wasn't by conventional means and poor naruto had to go through such hardship before he was even qualified as a ninja genin- and she knew that one of the sensei's had been responsible for that pain. She was scared because she didn't know how the classes were taught exactly, and whether or not they would have other teachers than Iruka sensei. Not much was really expounded upon regarding schooling in the manga. She hoped that they would always have Iruka, but she knew that it was a shallow hope at best. And she didn't know what to do because the longer she took to reply, gaping stupidly at Naruto's angel face, the more crushed Naruto became, he was wiping at his eyes and giving her a most concerned look.

"I-I-I-I'm s-scared of the teachers… It's just that- It's-What if they don't treat you nice?" She asked, and just like that, it was as it a switch had been flipped in Naruto's brain. The tears disappeared from his eyes to be replaced with fire, his posture straightened, and his face became tender.

"Yori…" As he said this he reached out and wrapped his little arms around her in a unyielding hug. "Even if the teachers are dumb like some of the villagers" Understatement of the year, Yori flinched "-It doesn't matter because I'm still gonna be awesome, I'm still going to be a ninja, and I'm still going to make them all recognize me when I become Hokage" Naruto maintained his seriousness while telling her this and she clung to him like a lifeline. Like a freezing person clung to a blanket, like a starving person clung to food; she didn't think anything could break the death grip she had on him.

Her own eyes filled up with tears for him- how could things be so unfair for him? Naruto was the most amazing and most deserving person she knew, and still he remained so amazing through all his hardships. She buried her face in his neck and when she felt his hand rubbing her back comfortingly, she almost sobbed.

"And so what if the teachers suck- I'm going to be so awesome, they'll have to recognize me and with you there to help me, by the end of it they'll be begging for forgiveness from their new Hokage-Sama!" Naruto laughed sheepishly scratching the back of his head and threw a punch to punctuate his last statement. He used the hand not currently rubbing her back and pulled back to look her in the eye "So no worries, yeah?" Yori nodded in reply, stepping back and rubbing her own eyes to remove all evidence of weakness. When she looked back again to see Naruto's face, she saw that he was grinning his million watt smile and the infectiousness of it had her smiling back.

She felt her tension leave her shoulders, and reprimanded herself for her overreactions. Although she was still worried about how the teachers were going to treat Naruto, it wasn't the end all be all situation she was making it out to be in her head. Even if the teachers were unfair, she would teach Naruto all he would need to know and when he took the exam, they wouldn't be able to score him unfairly, because he would do so great, pretty much like he just told her. Yeah it would be fine, she would make sure that for every mistake the teachers made she would rectify it by herself tenfold.

Determined, Yori grunted and made sure to high five Naruto. She didn't know what she would do if she didn't have him. It was no wonder that he was the main character of her dream manga thing. He was incredible- even if he does have his moments, she thought as she watched him try to jump to the second row, attempting to soar over the first row of desks but tripping and falling spectacularly. Losing sight of him as he disappeared head first between the front row and the accompanying bench-like seat.

It was as she was preparing to go help him out of his uncomfortable predicament that the sliding door of the classroom opened. Rather violently opened if she said so herself. She almost jumped at the sudden and sharp sound it made. She looked back to see who it was, and saw none other than the classic Uchiha. She was willing to bet her ramen that this was none other than Uchiha Sasuke himself. The man, the myth, the legend. She had overheard so many things about this kid on the streets from other girls her age that it was most exasperating. He was only eight like the rest of them- what on earth were these girls eating that made them so boy crazy from such a young age?! It scared her sometimes, the ferocity these fangirls had- Yori had bore witness to many a catfight in her time. Usually over one Uchiha or another- but none more so than Sasuke-Kuuun~ and Itachi-Samaaa~.

It was eye opening and stupefying. With all those fights and screaming matches in mind, she closely examined the new arrival. His cheeks still were slightly pudgy from baby fat like any other eight year old, but the disinterested scowl he was going for only managed to look cute because of his young age. His shirt was high collared and black, and his shorts were also black with his hands stuffed in the pockets. The dark color was a startling contrast to his pale skin tone. Yori had to admit, Sasuke was pretty. Prettier than her even, she could not deny it. He had big eyes so dark you couldn't see the pupil, long thick cohl black lashes, pale smooth skin, a small nose, and a pouting mouth. Yep, Sasuke Uchiha was definitely very pretty. However, so were the majority of all the other Uchiha's that she had seen.

She was trying to think of why Sasuke in particular was popular among the ladies, and then she remembered that he was one of the head of the clans' sons. She figured that that was the reason there was such a Sasuke fever running rampant through Yori's peers.

All throughout her perusal of the young Uchiha, Naruto was moaning and groaning underneath the table. Clattering and shuffling and overall making a ruckus. She was used to his crazy though, so she didn't pay him much mind; Sasuke seemed annoyed. She made eye contact with him accidentally and he scowled as hard as his little face would allow, grunting before slamming the door shut just as he had opened it before sauntering to one of the desks on the opposite side of the room from her and where Naruto was squawking. He sat in the back of the room and after crossing his hands and resting his elbows on the desk, putting his mouth behind said hands, he proceeded to ignore the two of them.

Well she wasn't exactly expecting a warm welcome, but goodness. Finally Naruto seemed to pull himself up from between the desks, looking adorably ruffled, and called to her. She pulled her observing eyes from Sasuke and made her way over to Naruto, following him as he made his way to the middle row and sat down. She sat beside him and listened as he told her about how he had been off balance when he jumped and that was why he had failed so epically, and about how he could have easily made the jump to the second row. Yori only smiled and listened to her friend as he moved on from that topic to the next one and the next. She knew that he could have probably made the jump like he said but that didn't stop her from giggling at his excuses. He stuck his tongue out at her but only continued to talk as she knew he would.

She was so absorbed with listening to Naruto ramble on about things from ramen to shuriken to training to Hokage that she didn't even notice the rest of the class enter until the teacher came in and demanded silence.

Unfortunately it wasn't Iruka like she had hoped, instead it was some other scarred chunin. He was wearing the customary chunin uniform, with a ninja headband on his forehead and short salt and pepper hair. He had a jagged scar running from the tip of his chin to his left ear and steely grey eyes that radiated a no-nonsense aura. He seemed like the kind to grade fairly, and Yori felt hope warm her heart. A warmth that was cruelly extinguished with a bucket of ice water the moment she saw the Chunins eyes stop on Naruto.

He had the same look in his eye as most of the villagers, but more cold- more controlled. She hoped that the control meant that he would at least grade fairly; but no, she saw a cruel smirk and she knew right then that this school year would be long and hard. As he introduced himself, a name she didn't want to deign to remember, she glared daggers into him. Looking him dead in the eyes, even though he never spared her more than a passing glance. He would be their homeroom teacher for the next year and as such it was his responsibility to ensure that their every ninja educational need would be met. She could just bet he would be jumping with excitement to handle Naruto and all of his needs. Yori huffed in indignation.

Then just to add insult to injury, he had the gall to question the class on their knowledge- knowledge that they were in this class to learn, thank-you-very-much; and no, he wasn't questioning the class, he was questioning Naruto. The first question, the one directed at Naruto was one that was difficult, but not impossible- something that Yori prided herself on was her amazing teaching skills and the complete success story that was Naruto. He really was very smart and hardworking when given the right incentive; meaning he would move mountains for a bowl of Ichiraku.

In order to not appear too obviously biased, not that there was much to miss concerning the terrible tension and negative vibes being sent Naruto's way. Yori looked around and she knew right then that the students, though most of them were young and blockheaded, had indeed noticed the scorn directed at Naruto. However, it seemed as though they thought it was funny.

It was disgusting, even though she knew that they had heard terrible, horrible, untrue things about Naruto from their parents, she couldn't help but despise the fact that they were so easily made to hate someone simply for existing. To take such perverse pleasure from another's pain was so foreign to her. She was sure someday, being that she was a ninja, she would have to cause someone pain and would likely at some time enjoy it, but for now she couldn't understand- nor did she want to. For the day that happened she would no longer completely be Yori she would be changed.

And that did not sound like a good prospect at all. She liked herself just the way she was now, thank you very much. Well, she was mostly happy with herself, she could still work on a few things, but she figured she still had time- and Naruto.

Moving on, she noticed that the other students were getting easier questions- and yet were still getting them wrong, especially the civilian children with no shinobi background or connections really whatsoever. She thought it really wasn't fair, but then again they were only eight, there was still time to learn, however it would be made much more difficult and the civilian children were beginning with a disadvantage. They were also very easily distinguished from the crowd of students, being that although they wore clothes capable of being used for exercise, most of them wore clothes unsuitable for ninja.

Of course, the teacher, although having been asking the class various easy questions, and being understanding at the lack of knowledge for the most part, had to come back to Naruto. And he had to ask a ridiculously hard question to boot! It was absolutely ridiculous! What eight year old first year academy student knew the ingredients of the go to antidote- the one used to treat numerous symptoms quickly and effectively to take the edge off of most lethal poisons- lowering the fatality rate exponentially since its creation. Of course she knew, but that was because she loved to read anything, meaning medical texts were not beyond her range of intake.

Of course Naruto got it wrong, but he took it like a champ. He confidently answered with

"Ramen!" and so the teacher smiled balefully.

"Are you making fun of the teacher with an ridiculous answer like that? twenty push ups, I want you to count out loud. Any funny business and you will start again. Am I clear?" The teacher now had earned both a death glare from Yori, and snickers from the more hateful of the students. Naruto simply stared, before screaming

"WHAT?!" And Yori had to agree. It was ridiculous.

"Now. Or I'll make it forty" The teacher said calmly, with a tone of steel in his voice. He had a manic sort of glee in his cold eyes that made Yori heat up in helpless rage. How dare he look at Naruto with those eyes. She was preparing to stand up and say something, probably really dumb, when Naruto slammed a heavy hand down on her shoulder, glueing her to the seat. She looked up at him, her mouth open in protest, but it snapped shut when she saw his face.

"Hah, I could do that easy, in fact you better make it sixty or else I might just actually fall asleep!" Naruto pointed to his chest with his thumb,

"After all, if I'm going to be Hokage, only doing forty would be an insult!" Yori was proud of Naruto, but really she just wanted to hide her face in her hands. Certainly he should have just let her speak, instead of just asking for the teacher to hate him more and give him more punishments. It did make the students weary however, there was an uncertainty in the air, caused by the student rebuking the teacher.

"One hundred push ups." Was the somewhat less calm voice of the teacher, she could clearly see that if he wasn't annoyed before, he was much more so now.

"HAH, EASY!" Naruto yelled out in his way, then dropped to the ground and started pumping out the push ups like a machine, counting out loud for everyone to hear.

"And let this be an example that in this school you are being trained to be ninjas- you will not be coddled, and no form of disrespect is gone without punishment!" The teacher then told the class to get their books from their desks and write their names in them, repeating himself loudly and angrily when nobody did so fast enough, all attention still on Naruto, as he calmly continued doing his push ups. She knew that he would, like he said, have no problem doing so many push ups despite his age. The Uzumaki genes and Kyuubi gave him unbelievable stamina.

To her displeasure, the rest of the day continued in much the same way. And so, save for the weekends where Yori managed to teach Naruto what he had managed to be sabotaged by the teacher, the days and years went by.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also not the happiest about all of this bit but I relatively like what came out of me for the next bits


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> graduation and starting to finally get the ball rolling i suppose, the L-word is used

The years seemed to fly by. As they went Yori remembered that her goal was to prevent unhappy endings. Sadly, she could do nothing for Obito, as she wasn't in this world when that happened, however, the biggest thing, to her, was preventing the Uchiha massacre. An achievement she was proud to say was a massive success. She was even the proud cause of many Uchiha clan and not Uchiha clan marriages. A breakthrough as far as she was concerned. The fact that the Uchiha clan of now couldn't possibly try to revolt was a refreshing thought. There was still tension of course but the fact remained that her goal of preventing their destruction was a success. As long as they were all alive and well, any tensions and sour relationships had the possibility of being mended. The influences of the past and Madara could not go unnoticed- for if something so drastic were to happen to cause the clan to rebel against the village, it would be highly suspect; something Madara couldn't afford if she recalled correctly from all those years ago, in that other life reading the amazing Naruto series.

  
As for her and Naruto however, things were going as well as they could be expected. Naruto was overall a loathed presence in the school, her as well because of her association with the demon child spaz, but she didn't really care for that- they put up with the villagers and it really wasn't that much worse in the school, add in the fact that they had all learned a long time ago not to even attempt to prank the two of them because Naruto was the king of pranking and anything dished out would be returned tenfold. The teachers and quality of learning was what really got to her. She would not allow Naruto to go through the pain she knows he went through in the fictional series from her dream world.

  
She was here and she would not allow such things to happen.

  
Although Naruto was a genius and a Hokage in her eyes always, she had to admit that he would probably still pass at the bottom of the class. Not that she particularly minded, it was just that it was a terrible misrepresentation of his true ability. He simply had so much chakra that it was very difficult for him to do the simpler jutsus taught to the academy students. He could sometimes pull them off during training with her in their own little training field that they had claimed. But hardly ever, or rather, never, in class. She didn't even want to get started on the in-class work, things like tests and quizzes. He had so much pent up energy and the constant need to be in motion that Naruto simply could never properly focus to the best of his ability. Add in teachers that hate him and are willing to antagonize him and Naruto was the bottom of the class, easy.

  
Although she was proud of him, for at times he would over take Kiba and be second to last. Those times were celebrated with lots and lots of ramen and jumping. Kiba of course was a rather good sport, his personality was surprisingly close to Naruto’s in that they both were too rowdy to properly sit down and be quiet for an extended amount of time. The antics that he and Naruto got into both made Yori feel exasperated and slightly jealous.

  
It was made up to her though in that she made her own new friend like people. Seeing as though she considered Naruto and Kiba to be rather good friends indeed, if asked the two of them would deny the claim vehemently. She actually thought it was rather cute the one time she had walked into the classroom looking for Naruto after class was over to see why he wasn't ready to go home and waiting for her at the gate where they always met, she had caught the two of them huddled together whispering. As soon as she had walked in however, they had torn themselves apart and adorned the most horribly innocent looking faces they could. Naruto of course as soon as realizing it was just her changed his innocent looking face into a wide mischievous smile.

  
She had decided not to ask when Naruto had not mentioned it himself on their walk home. The next day when the teacher went home purple and covered in feathers screaming obscenities, she had known immediately. She had not even needed to look at their smug snickering forms to confirm. She had simply looked at Naruto and when he gave her a foxy thumbs up she had only rolled her eyes and giggled behind her hands. There was certainly never a dull moment. Not that she minded really, she wouldn't give it up for the world.

  
They were in their last year at the academy. She had managed to persuade Naruto, without even needing to try, to get him to take the test with her when they both reached the average academy requirement. So they were twelve now, and the Uchiha clan was getting along with the village splendidly, and she was pretty sure that she had at least somehow managed to get the Hokage to look into the rain country and the seven swordsmen and whatever they were up to. She was betting on the little things having a butterfly effect.

  
It had been worth the heart attack it had caused her to point out some of the irregularities going on under wraps there. She knew that he probably already knew but she used the puppy dog eyes- or rather she had Naruto use his- and she could only hope that it would be enough to cause a change. She was hoping that by doing this, even though it was small she would be able to prevent the worst from happening like it did in the manga. The Naruto world most clearly followed Murphey’s law however, so she didn't get her hopes up too far, but she did actively try to be optimistic.

  
Now sitting next to Naruto as he rough housed with Kiba who was sitting in the row behind them, Akamaru barking like there was no tomorrow on top of Kiba’s head, she could not be more satisfied. Huffing as she sat quietly in her seat as she always did. She seemed to be a natural introvert- or so she told herself to excuse her abysmal social skills. She had heard Iruka-sensei refer to her as shy one time, and she guessed she was okay with that. She was fine being like that, it wasn't like she was the only one either, Hinata and Shino for example were both also sitting quietly much like her. She huffed softly and relaxed slightly into her seat as she felt Naruto’s leg nudge hers as he continued to rough-house.

  
That was until Sasuke walked in. It would seem as though, even though he still had his family, and his brother specifically, he still had a had a broody attitude. She supposed that it was just in the genes. He still had the angst thing going too. She was just thankful that it wasn't quite as bad as it was in the manga. He was still the top boy of the class of course, but that was to be expected. She did feel bad for him, but it was hard to feel too bad what with his attitude about all that he had.

  
He also was Naruto's self proclaimed eternal rival. It was her duty as Naruto’s best friend to support him. Even so she didn't hate Sasuke, she was simply slightly annoyed by his outlook on life, but she did understand it. His father and his family had some serious favoritism problems, and as such it made Sasuke have an equally serious inferiority complex. She supposed it was partially his drive to be as good as his brother that made Sasuke such a dunderhead. She really felt for him though because of his fangirls. It must be rough to be stalked constantly. And they were all so dedicated and vicious. She did actually admire Sasuke at times for his -albeit meager- ability to put up with them so indifferently; she would have become angry and someone probably would have gotten hurt.

  
Well not really- she was too soft for that to happen but she definitely knew for sure that she wouldn't have been able to handle it as gracefully as he apparently did.

  
Moving on she turned her attention away from the brooding Uchiha celebrity and focused on the matters at hand. Today was examination day, and such graduation day for those who passed. Meaning that it was the beginning of the ‘show’.

Meaning that things were about to get crazy. She could only hope that her presence made things less tragic, and not more so. She focused on her game plan. She knew that Naruto wouldn't pass, and she told him to his non-listening ears that he might not pass this time, only to be ignored with excessive bravado. Him repeating that how could he possibly fail? She had done her best but the clone technique… how could he pull that off?

  
He couldn't- and she didn't know how to fix it and make things better. She knew that he needed to learn about what was inside of him, as well as the shadow clone jutsu, but she didn't want Iruka-sensei or Naruto to get hurt. She just knew that if he even thought for a split second that the villagers were right, that he was a monster, she- well she- she didn't know what she would do, but it would be devastating! Even if he would later understand otherwise, she just knew it would leave a gaping sensitive scar on his heart, and as far as she was concerned he already had enough of those.

  
As she was devising different ways of going about the rapidly approaching evening, panicking more and more as time went on, she felt a whoosh of air and the sound of someone sitting next to her. In the seat that was unoccupied for as long as she had attended the academy.

  
She looked over in shock, only a few people were seemingly unaffected by the monster children stigmatism, and they were comfortable where they were; they had their own seats and friends and no real desire to actually befriend her and Naruto. Even if they didn't care for others’ opinions.

  
Lo and behold, there was one slightly ruffled looking- but still arrogant- Sasuke Uchiha sitting next to her. She had no clue what the meaning of this was. In all their years of attending the academy, they had only ever shared a few words. Words like ‘Excuse me’ and ‘Sorry about Naruto’ and a whole lot of grunting. She was usually just the background decoration for all of their ‘rivalry’ brawls and arguments. She looked at him now incredulously. She looked at his- not assigned but his- seat. He had sat in it on his first day and every day since.

Much the same as she and Naruto had.

  
Ah.

  
Now she understood.

  
He had never come in late before. Always, it had been her and him and usually- but not always- Naruto who got to the classroom earliest in the morning, just as it had been on the first day of academy. She saw that for once he was not among the first to arrive. And as a result, the place where he usually sat and guarded like a rabid dog was taken- no it was over run by terrifying fangirls. They were looking at him hungrily, but also in disappointment. They were also looking at her with murder in their eyes. She looked around the rest of the room and she realized why he had chosen to sit next to her instead of in some other empty seat; despite the fact that Naruto was on her other side. There was no other seat in the room not within the range of at least one fangirl. The lesser of two evils it seemed.

  
She looked back at him after circling the room with her eyes. He was stubbornly staring at the blackboard, but as though he could feel the pity and realization wafting off of her, he scowled even more than his usual. She was slightly impressed, because if anything Sasuke was a professional scowler.

  
Before she- or even Naruto once he realized his rival was a seat away from him- could do anything, Iruka walked in.

Holding nothing but a folder and the smile on his scarred face, he explained how proud he was of all of them, and about how many other jobs there were that didn't include being a ninja, about how even if they didn't pass they still had a bright future ahead of them serving the village, and blah blah blah… It was something nobody wanted to hear but had heard many times before. Even she who usually listened carefully to the instructor was reluctantly bored.

  
It didn't last too long however, and as though realizing the lack of interest the speech was garnering, the teachers, Iruka and the nasty silver headed Mizuki, cut it short and began the written portion. Yori obviously had no trouble with this part and was the first to finish, followed quickly by the genius Uchiha sitting next to her. She glanced over at him as she waited for the rest of the class to finish, and she saw that he was- surprise surprise- sitting with his arms crossed. Sasuke cool pose number two if she remembered correctly. There was a list of top ten classroom sitting- resting poses.

  
She couldn't help but think that although they were older, literally nothing had changed. He was still just as pretty- prettier than her still- and he was still just as angsty, even his outfit had hardly changed. His high collared shirt had changed to navy blue, and his shorts to white. She was a little sad at that; she had wanted him to grow into a more positive boy, but at least she had spared him a little. She guessed that no matter what, Sasuke was always going to be Sasuke. and as such his character and personality would always be his own, no matter what he went through. That was what was beautiful about people and humanity in general in her opinion.

  
As she was dozing staring at him and contemplating his fate in her dream world, she almost teared up. Before she knew it though a dejected Naruto reclaimed his seat beside her and the second round of exams began. She settled down for a long wait, seeing as her name was Yori, and she had no last name, she would be among the last tested. She relaxed and waited. Surprisingly enough, the seating arrangements caused no problem for her whatsoever. It was rather a shock to her that exams proceeded without incident. Sasuke left to take his exam and never came back. No matter though, she knew like everyone else that he had passed.

  
Now as they were preparing to call her name she knew that she would have to pass. Even if she knew that Naruto had already failed- she knew that if she did fail it would only be suspicious. But it didn't matter, because she was going to work it out with Naruto- he would never have to be lonely ever again. Predictably the testing jutsu was the clone jutsu, and she did her clones flawlessly- as was expected from the top kunoichi in the class.

  
As she collected her headband and exited the room, she saw Naruto on the swing. Her heart broke. She went to go to him, but before she could, she saw that Mizuki was there. Wanting to be there for Naruto, she made sure to speed up her walking steps. She knew that, just as he had in the dream, he had failed the exam and was without a headband. Her own was clenched in her fist. She shoved it in her pocket and ignored the happy families behind her. Mizuki had disappeared. Naruto was preparing to follow but she grasped onto his arm before he could. His look was such that she couldn't help but to embrace him. He had the look on his face she swore he would never have. She squeezed him as hard as she could.

  
He, for the first time since their friendship began, did not return her hug immediately. She didn't know what to do about that. Pulling back she kept her grip on him but asked,

  
“What do you need me to do?” She looked him dead in the eye and she knew she would die for him. Well, maybe this situation was not warranting her death for his sake, however, it didn't make the fact any less true. She supposed it was like an epiphany moment, not that if she had ever been asked before her response would have been any different, it was just that she realized it now.

  
Jolting back to reality from where her realization had put her in a dazed sort of state, Yori squeezed Naruto even tighter when she felt his hands on hers.

  
“I need you… to go home. I have to do this on my own, or I’ll never become a worthy Hokage.” There was steel in his voice, but all Yori wanted to do was smack him. He wanted her to go home? When he was feeling so conflicted and upset that his usually sky blue eyes were stained nearly grey? He looked to be on the verge of tears, when she came out, and after that untrustworthy teacher Mizuki had talked to him he had this determined look in his eye that bordered on desperation. And she didn't like it one bit.

  
To add sugar to the pot was the fact that she knew from her dream life that this would likely not end well, and Naruto would suffer emotional pain, Iruka-sensei physical. A set-up that would allow Naruto to be a genin but at what loss? Have even more of Naruto’s happy-go-lucky heart and spirit be cracked and tested?

  
No she did not like that prospect at all! She would tell him too! She would tell him about how she felt and she would follow him if she had to- he wanted her to go home and sit down and twiddle her thumbs while he was out doing who knows what just to become a genin- something she knew he was more qualified for than any other! Not realizing that in her extended silence she had tilted her head down so her eyes were covered, and she had been progressively squeezing Naruto tighter and tighter, so much so that her knuckles were white. Breathing heavily with her emotion, snapping her head up to meet his eyes once more, she whispered fiercely

  
“And since when has a Hokage earned the title by not accepting help from others? You can't become a leader if you don't have people willing to help you, and you can't be a leader if you cannot learn to accept that help whenever you need it!” She felt her face burning, and she knew she was probably tearing up with all the emotion.

  
Naruto tended to do that to people- make them feel, that is.  
it was preposterous how he expected her to just listen to him. Admittedly she had never not listened to him before, finding that listening or compromising slightly was just much easier, but even she knew that this was something he needed her for- or rather something she needed him to need her for.  
She would not take no for an answer- and if she had to be, she would be most underhanded, meaning she would revoke ramen rights. Thankfully, looking into his eyes and seeing the falling resistance and shock there, she didn't think it would be necessary to do such a thing. She was thankful; she never wanted to do anything that would make Naruto even remotely upset with her- she loved him too much.

  
Wait.

  
Love? She realized that no she had never before uttered such a thing. Nor had she ever come to this realization. She didn't know how to feel- as if the situation wasn't emotionally charged enough already. Now that she knew that she loved him, that those were her real feelings, she couldn't wait- no she wouldn't wait to tell him. She was just- squeezing him, before she had the chance to change her mind or something of the like, she blurted it out,

  
“I love you!” She closed her eyes then and returned to her former position of hugging him tightly. She could feel him stiffen. She assumed that he had never had such things said to him. Standing there, the sunset setting their surroundings aflame in yellows and oranges, she vowed to never let go. She didn't know if Naruto would eventually get sick of her, but she wouldn't let go. Tears were flowing freely from her clenched eyes, soaking the shoulder of Naruto’s blaring orange jumpsuit.

  
It wasn't until much later that one of them, she can't remember which, recommended that they make their way back to the apartment and prepare for the events of the evening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> didnt really read through this one all the way so more mistakes are to be expected


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the ball starts a-rollin at last. do be sure to give feedback if it strikes your fancy in the least

Yori looked around the classroom for the last time as a student. She wasn't sure how she felt about that particular realization; however, she knew that she was ready to face any future with Naruto. Even if she died a terrible death as most ninja’s were wont to do, she had lived one of the most fulfilling lives she even knew was possible just being a kid with Naruto. She knew that the achievement of genin was a troublesome and hectic thing in the manga, but surprisingly enough, it was rather clean-cut; she could only assume that this was due to her own intervention.

  
She had waited patiently in the woods while Naruto acquired the scroll- as he did in the manga- and when he arrived they immediately got to work on its innards. Naruto simply got to work on the first one he saw- unsurprisingly enough, that was the shadow-clone jutsu- but she had something much more ambitious in mind. She decided that she would take a looksie at all the rest of the scroll; after all, she was just a confused academy student who only wanted her important person to succeed and become a ninja as she just had earlier that day, and with the teacher who had recommended this scroll. She didn't have to read the whole thing to realize exactly why all the techniques in it were dubbed ‘forbidden’.

  
Marvelling at the stupidity of Mizuki, she wondered if he only wanted the scroll due to its label as ‘forbidden’, that he didn't even have the vaguest idea about what was inside of it. Even now she shook her head at the ridiculousness. Honestly all of the techniques were potentially lethal, but not in the way that Mizuki had likely planned for them to be. They were all intensely varied in their functions, going from cloning, to element-based, ranging from E, to S ranked in difficulty; the only thing each Jutsu had in common was the amount of chakra necessary to accomplish them.

  
If any ninja not at or above high chunin level chakra control or intensity even attempted these techniques, it was obvious that there was a very high probability of death- at the very least hospitalization. She didn't spare a glance at Naruto, knowing that his levels were more than above average- she did all she could to commit the scroll to memory. All of these techniques would be fits for Naruto because of the fact that he had such monstrous chakra levels. She was feeling giddy just thinking about his future.

  
No more clever ninja with only three moves, he would be so well rounded people would be incapable of seeing all his sides at once. Yori briefly wondered at the phrasing of her own thoughts, but was promptly distracted.

  
When Iruka arrived- and Mizuki as well- she became little more than boring wallpaper. She supposed it was good for her as a ninja but still. The beans were predictably spilled, however during the distraction later provided- touching moment that it was, and she felt for Iruka, Mizuki had just attempted to skewer her most important person!- she managed to wrap the silver haired menace in ninja-wire.

  
After that Naruto felt properly incensed and used his newly acquired clones to beat the hogtied Mizuki. She ignored this in favor of tending to the shell-shocked Iruka sensei.

  
Ahhhhh, memories. Yori was reminiscing the whole thing like it had happened long ago, when really it had literally just gone down the other night. She had celebrated when Naruto got his forehead protector and then they had stayed up all night in their apartment, but really, sitting here in the classroom, next to Naruto who decided to come with her and wake up early for a change, she wished she could be as fresh faced as him. Heck, she would take a tailed beast any day if it meant she would miraculously become a pristine morning person. She might wake up early and be proficient but beautiful cheery princess she was certainly not.

  
Watching as all the students filed in, eyes bright with the brilliance of their assumed futures, she could only fight not to scowl. She would have dunked her head in cold water this morning, but Naruto had been frantic. Almost as much as on their first day at the academy, he had been jumping all over the place talking about how he was that much closer to hokage, and how they had been so awesome the other night it was obvious that they would make a great team and she would be the best right-hand when he became hokage, and hey I know we already discussed this but how do you think we will be grouped as genin, the old man and Iruka will put us together if they know what’s good for them, after all the future hokage deems it necessary that we be on the same team… and so on. As a self proclaimed master at patience, even she was put to the test. Especially when he started to repeat himself.

  
Waiting she knew she was nervous but what was there to do?

She honestly didn't know how to answer some of Naruto’s questions and much the same as Naruto, she was panicking as she had on the first day at the academy; a mixture of excitement and nervousness. Sitting next to him now, as he roughhoused with Kiba and bumped her every now and then by accident- and sometimes in reassurance she thought- she tried to breath deeply.

  
Attempting to put herself in the moment, in a way to calm herself, she focused on her surroundings, all of her senses. She could hear the milling of people waiting excitedly; fangirls squealing, wondering who would be on the same team as the famed Uchiha, said Uchiha scowling so hard she could almost hear it, the sounds of children laughing and the movement of Naruto and Kiba next to her. She breathed in and smelled the scent of chalk and, lightly, sweat- as per usual for the academy. But under that she could make out Naruto’s spicy earthy scent next to her, somehow being both calm and arousing. She could smell some perfumes, undoubtedly from the fangirls, for no one else would be so foolish to be a ninja in training and wear such a thing.

  
There was a slight aftertaste of mint in her mouth, from when she had brushed her teeth after breakfast. Her clothes were soft on her skin. The combination of a dark burgundy, sleeveless, short kimono dress, and black ninja wear shorts underneath resulting in a most efficient and comfortable ninja garb.

  
Opening her eyes at last, she felt more refreshed and her mind was pleasantly blank. Early morning mood good-bye. Hello world.

  
As soon as that thought crossed her mind the classroom door opened and a slightly worse for wear but smiling Iruka walked in. Here it was, the moment of truth. She reached over and couldn't help but grab Naruto. She managed to grab his arm, and it seemed to get his attention. As Iruka was commanding the class to silence and giving yet another speech- she noticed he gave a lot of those, she figured it was his thing- Naruto moved her hand so that her smaller one was grasped in his. She looked over at him as their fingers intertwined and he smiled so confidently at her she couldn't help the giggle that came out at his goofiness. The confused look that followed at her laughing only made her feel better.

  
As they were having a moment together, Iruka began to call out groups. She immediately began to pay more attention, the more groups he called out that didn't include her or Naruto she became more and more nervous. She prayed that she could be in a group with Naruto despite the fact that in her dream he was in a group with Sakura and Sasuke.

Clenching her eyes as Iruka called out group six, she squeezed Naruto’s hand so tight she could feel his concerned gaze on her face.

“Team seven, Naruto Uzumaki,”

  
This was it, Yori felt her heart stop beating, she stopped breathing, she felt as though the world had slowed down.

  
“Yori,” After this Iruka paused. More like he was forced to as Naruto was screaming and celebrating so loudly his next words would have undoubtedly been drowned out. Yori herself had snapped her eyes open and her head had snapped up from a bent position she had not even remembered getting into. She felt her eyes become more and more wet, so much so that they were threatening to overflow. Her hand that was still clenched in Naruto’s was being flung around limply as Naruto expressed his happiness excessively. Her arm was flopping around and she didn't even bother with it, she only met Iruka sensei’s eyes and shell shocked, incredulously grinning, met his conspicuous one.

  
Clearing his throat loudly, he gave a pointed look to Naruto, one that was promptly ignored by said Naruto until she yanked him down, seemingly to give him a hug but mostly just to get him silent for a moment so that they could hear who their third partner would be.

  
“Ah-hem, as I was saying, team seven: Uzumaki Naruto, Yori,” Naruto gave a muffled yell as she practically strangled him in her hug; her enthusiasm not even faked as she continued to squeeze him.

  
“Uchiha Sasuke.” Iruka, unlike when he revealed Yori’s name, she noticed that he had a mischievous glint in his eye. She could only think a belated ‘oh no’ before Naruto stood up indignantly.

  
Because she had such a death grip on him, she was partially pulled up as well. She made a rather undignified picture, she thought, seeing as her own shock had caused her to freeze up and release halfway through Naruto standing up; meaning, she was dumped back into her seat, and with her balance upsetted the way it was she fell right down past her seat and to the ground, her feet sticking upon the seat and desk. She heard Naruto screaming about how ridiculous it was for him the future hokage to be paired with such a person as Sasuke.

Through the sound of the fangirls outrage, she heard Iruka smartly reply that the top boy and girl were to be paired with the bottom of the class… meaning Naruto.

  
Slowly righting herself, she could feel Sasuke’s scowl and dark amusement at Naruto’s public putting down by Iruka. She herself was still in shock. It was so much in such a short amount of time. Because she was in a group with Naruto she guessed she probably should have guessed that Sasuke would be included as well, but she honestly had not thought that far.

She guessed that it was obvious that the three of them were going to be in the same group, as the top and bottom of the class were always paired together. But, slowly sitting up and pulling Naruto down next to her form where he was still frozen in soulless shock from what Iruka sensei had said, she organized her thoughts somewhat.

  
Looking at Iruka, she saw that he had meant what he had said to them, and maybe it was somewhat tradition, but as far as Naruto and Sasuke being on the same team, she wondered how much of it was actually political. Oh boy, now she really felt like a fool. She had derived a whole lifetime ago how the teams and students and practically everything ninja traced back to politics. She guessed it was just a shock to see it actually happen, to her, to be there to actually see it and realize it. Seeing the strings being pulled was an entirely new experience, rather than just watching the show she was now one of the puppets.

  
Blinking slowly she realized that team eight and nine had already been paired. Snapping back and forcing herself to pay more attention she listened as Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino were all sorted into a group. She worked up the power to smile somewhat at seeing the formation of the new Ino-Shika-Cho group. She had read of their parents’ exploits and amazing accomplishments in one of the Konoha Ninja Library books. She guessed it was only obvious that they would be together, as they were in the dream.

  
Sitting there Iruka quickly finished up the rest of the teams. Curious about Sakura, she realized that with her, heck even with Naruto suddenly becoming a genin, how that would correlate in team numbers. She didn't even see Sakura in the class. Thinking, she remembered that top grades were indeed put with other top grades and bottoms. She couldn't help but think about how smart Sakura was, regardless of her obsession with Sasuke. Undoubtedly she was put in another class of genin, to be paired with another top-of-the-class bottom-of-the-class combo. She was happy, and she wasn't quite sure how this was going to effect the grand scheme of things, but much like the Uchiha clan she hoped that it would be for the better, this change that she had caused.

  
Sitting there, as Jounin took away their genin, she pulled out the lunch she had prepared for her and Naruto. It was in a rather large basket and she had made his favorite food.

Although she hadn't informed him yet, she had no doubt he knew; his eyes were sparkling in anticipation, and she had no doubt that that sharp nose of his had caught the scent that morning, despite her attempts to be discreet. The second she put the first bowl in front of him he dug in, and she smiled fondly. Same old Naruto. It seemed like nothing had changed, and in his simplicity he appeared to have forgotten all about the ordeal with Sasuke; irrelevant to the fact that it had just happened.

  
Looking over she saw that the popular kid had taken his leave. She agreed with him in doing that, as already the fangirls were loudly exclaiming about his disappearance and their determination to have lunch with him at least this once to commemorate their last day as students- just before they joined their teams and officially began their journey as Konoha ninja. Of course, during the course of that lunch Sasuke would realise how different the girl he was eating with was from the rest of the world- how amazing and incredible she was, and how perfect they would be together, and he would fall madly in love. Or something like that.

  
Yori count help but find the idea comical and slightly manic. Well, she supposed that everyone had their eccentricities, and who was she to say something was impossible? She had dreamed that this was all a manga and still occasionally had periods of time where she questioned this very existence. 

As naruto bulldozed through his food, and the rest of the class eventually trickled back in- including some seriously dejected fangirls- Jounin sensei began to enter and claim their teams. She saw quite a few acclaimed folks come in and quite a few underrated folks as well. She was especially excited when she saw Shikamaru and his group get picked up by the Hokage’s son himself, Asuma. She patiently sat and when they were finally the last in the classroom, she looked over to see an annoyed Sasuke. If things went anything like they had in the dream manga, she was sure that they had their wait cut out for them. Thankfully she was prepared for such happenings.

  
Reaching into her handy pack, she pulled out a scroll. One of many she kept stashed. She put her hand to it and pulsed her chakra, with a cloud of white smoke and a subtle ‘poof’ books of all thickness and color appeared. Chuckling delightfully she looked to Naruto. A poorly attempting to get away Naruto.

She slammed her hand down on his shoulder, making him visibly jolt.

  
“Na-ru-to” she sing-sang, not forgetting to add a tone of innocence.

  
Naruto just seemed to be more unsettled. Appearing terrified, really he was so dramatic; he had to learn to become Hokage, and to learn he would have to study. She had hammered that into his skull one word at a time it felt like, and still he attempted to fight her on the subject. It was no small feat that he had even managed to solve any questions on tests. She didn't begrudge him his loathing or resent his difficulty learning things, but she did admit at times she felt some annoyance.

  
“We have some free time, it would seem. I’d say it’s a perfect time to get some studying done, wouldn't you?” Naruto seemed to just get paler and paler as she continued to talk, honestly, such a drama queen.

  
“A-ahh Yori-chan, I don't think that now is really the best time, after all we need to be ready to meet our new sensei, eh.” Naruto tried to get out of it, as always, but she was firm, also as always.

  
“If he has not come already I suspect that he will not come any time soon either. Now you know the drill, and if you do good I'll make you more ramen for dinner.” It was clear to see that Naruto was fighting with himself. He seemed split by her bribe. It seemed as though the Ramen vs. Study debate had caused conflict within him. It always did, no matter how many times she proposed it.

  
Sighing hugely, Naruto reached out for one of the books, acting as though it was going to strike out at him and attack at any moment. Huffing she placed the one they had left off on last time in his hand. Pointing to the front of the classroom she grabbed her own book. Dejected Naruto went with her to the front. Sasuke ignored them the whole time, but whenever he thought she wasn't looking, she could catch him in her peripherals eying them with haughty curiosity.

  
Getting down in the push-up position, Naruto waited for her to seat herself upon his back before he began. Yori had discovered that Naruto would learn better if he had the opportunity to keep his body in motion while he tried to read and learn. It also helped that it could be considered training in the more traditional sense. Steadily doing push-ups while reading the book situated under him, switching to do a one armed push-up whenever he needed to turn a page, Time seemed to pass them by.

  
Reading her own book, sitting in the classroom with the two boys, the three of them seemed to enter a serene state. It was very peaceful to Yori and like she often did at home she lost herself in the knowledge and words of the book cradled within her hands.

  
It was all peaceful that was, until Hatake Kakashi, the one and only copy- cat ninja, slid open the door. Naruto was so startled his rhythm was cut off and he caused Yori to clumsily fall from his back. She didn't make much of a sound, but she did squeak when she hit the floor. Naruto himself had fallen into a sprawl with his face smooshed to the study material, half underneath her. Sasuke, of course, was still stoically seated in the very same seat he had taken that morning. As Yori began to rise, Naruto was already on his feet and pointing at their supposed new sensei. She didn't think she ever would get used to his unpredictable speed. He had talents but seemingly only in the most inopportune moments.


	10. Chapter 10

“YOU’RE LATE!” Naruto screamed. Yori of course, being the closest to him, smacked his leg in reprimand, her other hand raised to her ears in an attempt to get the ringing sensation to subside. Seriously, nothing had changed about the knucklehead at all since they were kids- still a loud simpleton to the core. That, and it was always her  _ ears _ .

Although she didn't want to discredit their new sensei, even though she wanted to say she had been expecting his tardiness, she herself was also annoyed, so she didn't care to say anything. Even Sasuke looked skeptical and irritated at the man. Perhaps that was just his resting face though? The surprisingly gravity defying shock of silver hair upon their new sensei’s head swayed with the man's movements, especially as he sighed heavily, his already slouched shoulders giving the impression of a shrug. She wondered if he used some sort of jutsu for that hair?

“My first impression of you:” he said pointing to them with his bored demeanor, eyeing Naruto especially skeptically. “You're annoying. Meet me on the roof.” With a soft ‘pouf’ and a swirl of leaves he was gone. Shunshin it seemed.

The kids left in the classroom were more annoyed than shocked. Well, Yori was. She couldn't say the same for Naruto, who looked like he was fuming. Sasuke had that glint in his eye, but as usual his determination to be stoic and utterly  _ Uchiha  _ was making him harder to read. Yori simply was simply stunned at the man's seeming hypocrisy. He had made them wait hours to meet him, only for him to arrive and tell the patiently waiting future students they were annoying? There had to be more but from what she was knowing of as an academy student she was clueless at the man’s actions.

Well as a ninja there was always something underneath the underneath, so she would simply think on it until she came up with something- or she would  pigeonhole it for later. Mayhap he was having a bad day or they reminded him of someone in the past who had annoyed him. If she remembered the strange past life correctly, Naruto was the son of Minato, who was Kakashi’s jounin sensei. 

Either way time was a wasting and they needed to make their way up to the roof. Yori decided to walk, while Naruto and Sasuke dashed off, neither one wanting to be second and both wanting to get the situation over with. She figured what with all the time the man had taken to arrive, the bit of leisure to stretch her legs would be excusable.

Her footsteps sounded too loud in the empty building, so she opted to practice her stealth, and make no sound at all. She was still in need of practice as there was still a whisper of sound- completely unnoticeable to those who didn't know how to look, but she was never one for taking chances or not mastering something to the best of its ability. 

Opening the door to the rooftop was a shock to the senses. Naruto was yelling loudly, over something Sasuke had said no doubt- although it seemed like their new sensei was also going to be an instigator if the way he had introduced himself with was anything to go by. The sun was also blaring, almost more than was usual for fire country. 

She squinted as she walked over to sit between the two boys, prepared to mediate. Kakashi, for one, seemed bored as he sat on the railing. He eyed her but didn't remark on the amount of time it took her to arrive. Naruto, however, was not so silent. 

“Yoooooriiiiiii~ why did you take so long, I've been waiting forever with this bastard.” Naruto whined and pointed at Sasuke, whose only reaction was a slight twitch and a deadly glare. She could practically hear his teeth grinding. 

“Well Naruto I just wanted to take my time and stretch my legs, we were waiting for a long time after all, and I had gotten a little tired.” She was not completely lying, but she could see how her explanation at least slightly put off their sensei- well if the raised eyebrow was anything to go by. She was admittedly quite annoyed at his lateness. Being late meant a lot of things, one of them being a lack of care, and in the ninja world that was a double edged sword. If their jounin sensei didn't care for them enough to be on time, would he care enough to risk his life for them on the field? Actions spoke louder than words, and Yori was scared.

She was scared out of her mind; one simple mistake, one perfectly aimed shuriken, and Naruto would be dead. Being a ninja was a dangerous occupation, and the life expectancy was never very optimistic to begin with, but with her weird future dreams things seemed even more grim. If her future dreams were to be taken as fact, then she had nothing to worry about with Naruto’s survival, but then again where would her presence play in? She had too much to think about and not enough time or answers. She was yanked out of her thoughts by Kakashi interrupting an ‘ahhhhhh’ing Naruto.

Clearing his throat, Kakashi proposed they introduce themselves.

“Seeing as we will likely be stuck together in the unforeseeable future, we should learn the basics about one another.” His posture and tone implied that he wished to do anything but. 

Sensing the buildup in the two hormonal boys sitting next to her, Yori quickly interjected with an unimaginative question of her own.

“Why don't you introduce yourself as an example sensei? The way you described is a two-way street after all.” Although the boys beside her relaxed, their sensei had no tell of emotions whatsoever. 

“My name is Hatake Kakashi. I have lots of things I like and things I hate; I don't really feel like telling you them. My dreams for the future- I haven't really thought about. I have many hobbies.” All said in a monotone voice, the perfect ninja answer. Giving away nothing yet covering the bases. Yori was both stumped and slightly peeved. Being slightly cheeky she came back with,

“So your name is Kakashi.” She figured it was her turn, and even then she would be very unlikely to prevent a dispute, with the way Naruto was pouting and Sasuke was silently scowling - read, also pouting. Clearing her throat she began, “My name is Yori, I enjoy learning, and I hate injustice; and ignorance I suppose. I guess my dreams for the future would be to become someone who works closely and freely with the Hokage.” Sending a bright smile and sharing a happy glance with Naruto at this, at which he puffed up like a peacock, “and my hobbies would probably be reading, cooking, cleaning and training.” Listing each hobby on a finger as she spoke, she gave a thoughtful hum, then said, “also I will do everything in my life, with my life, to protect those who are important to me.” 

Seeing as how much the last bit meant to her, she said it in a solemn voice. She meant every bit of it, and looking at Naruto with a determined gaze, She was met with his own slack jawed face. The silence was interrupted by Kakashi’s proclamation of 

“Next. You, the blond.”

Naruto snapped out of it immediately, and with renewed vigor, practically yelled his introduction with a raised fist.

“My name is Uzumaki Naruto; I love Ramen and Yori, I hate it when my ramen takes too long to cook, I'm going to be the Hokage in the future, and my hobbies are training, eating new ramen and hanging out with Yori!” At that, his self satisfied face made Yori want to clap for him, and so she did. When the preening Naruto sat back down, Yori nudged him with her shoulder playfully. 

Last but not least it was Sasuke’s turn, and after a nonplussed Kakashi gestured to him, he began; but not after a muttered ‘Dobe’. Feeling Naruto reel up beside her she placed a hand on his knee. 

“My name is Uchiha Sasuke, I have many things I like. I hate weaklings, and I will overcome a certain person; no matter what it takes.” This last phrase was said with a dark tone, making Naruto squirm beside her uncomfortably,

“I train.” he finished as an afterthought.

She guessed that was all he was willing to give. Not wanting to leave him out, she also applauded his performance. It was much more awkward and uncomfortable than when she had applauded Naruto, but she persisted, because it simply wouldn't have felt right had she not. She was thinking while she was clapping that while situations can make a heck of a difference, Sasuke was still as emotionally vulnerable as he was in her dream. She guessed you could take the heartbreak out of the Sasuke, but you can't take the Sasuke out of the heartbreak. 

Giving him a nudge as she had Naruto, she received a glare and a not so subtle shift away from her. Instead of hurting her feelings, she only smiled. 

“Well now that we’ve all introduced ourselves, I’ve already arranged a mission we can do with the four of us together-”

WHAT-WHAT-WHAT-WHAT?!!” Naruto exclaimed, almost jumping out of his seated position in excitement. Yori wouldn't be lying if she confessed to also being excited, even if she did sort-of know what was going to happen already.

“A survival mission.” was the simple answer. Naruto although silent for a moment was quick to question,

“Didn't we already do those exercises in the academy? I thought we were going to do something NEW and COOL for once.” Shaking his head and pouting slumped was Naruto’s response.

“This won't be like what you went through in the academy, think of it as a sort of ‘second exam’ of sorts. Of the twenty-seven who graduated, only nine will move on to become true genin. The rest will be sent back to the academy.” The indents of his face mask and his crinkled eye was proof enough that he was enjoying revealing this information.

“Meet in training ground 7 tomorrow morning at 5 o’clock sharp. Oh, and make sure you don't eat anything, unless you want to throw it back up.” With one more evil chuckle and maniacal eye gleam, he was gone again with a whirlwind of swirling leaves. Yori sighed. 

She looked at her teammates only to realize that one of them, the angstier one, was already moving away. Attempting to be subtle, she pulled him back down. It was as good a time as any for a first team meeting. Hopefully not the last. She politely ignored the scowling twitching Sasuke in favor of putting her game face on. 

“Okay guys, we have a problem. None of us want to go back to the school, and we all want to pass this exam; and considering how hard he made it out to be, it’s not going to be easy for any of us. What do you think about what he said about the food?” She found that particular aspect to be suspicious, if not because of her dream then because of the complete emphasis they place on the importance of food and proper consumption in the academy. One of Choji’s clan members had even stopped by once a year to give a fun and food filled guest presentation. 

Of course she had her suspicions that at least a third of it was intended to remind the civilian girls how preposterous dieting was for a ninja’s lifestyle- and how dangerous. Like much information however, it fell on deaf ears. She knew that Sasuke, being the top boy in the class, would know to be as suspicious as she was. She was promptly let down however when she received a dismissive 

“Hn.” He tried again to get up, obviously not expecting one of his only ‘not a fan’ girls to restrict him. “I dunno Naruto, remember what Mr. Akamichi said? About food? Iruka sensei was also very adamant about the importance of eating before and after ninja exercise. Kakashi sensei already seems suspicious but this is especially concerning…” At this both Naruto and Sasuke seemed to stop and think. 

“You’re right Yori, so you think we should eat?” Said Naruto, he still looked a bit confused; asking him to remember a lesson from their academy days was expecting a lot, despite the fact that they just graduated. 

Sasuke, in favor of contributing to the conversation, instead just muttered 

“Dobe” Of course, this in turn sparked an almost reflexive response of

“TEMEEE!” As soon as it started, Yori felt the exasperation come; but she supposed that at least they had managed to outsmart their teacher in one way. Vindictive satisfaction overcame her. That jerk that made them wait all that time thought they were just naive little graduates- Oh, she would show him!- or rather, looking over at her teammates, holding each other off, Sasuke with an arm locked straight out and pushing Naruto’s face away, and Naruto with a handful of raven hair both of their spare hands bunched in each others shirts, trading insults and who knew what else- she couldn't help but laugh a little.

She was looking forward to their team, it was obvious that they would get along splendidly- with never a dull moment.

____________________________________________________________

Yori immediately regretted her thoughts from the other day. It was approximately 5:30, meaning it was thirty minutes or so since they had all three of them arrived in training ground 7,  and Naruto and Sasuke never seemed to tire of annoying one another. Yori was really starting to contemplate her own patience. Sure she was amused by their fox and the hound behavior and all its irony, but even she had her limits. She needed a distraction quick. Looking at her basket of food she had brought just in case, she had a stroke of genius. 

“Okay guys how about we train and eat at the same time?” It would have been a genius plan- if either one of them had bothered to acknowledge her presence and words.  _ Honestly _ , she thought. 

Pulling up a few rocks and pebbles from the ground, she tested their weight and grip for a few seconds before hurling them at the two arguing idiots’ heads. Naruto seemed to feel her killing intent; and, used to this sort of treatment when he was caught red-handed, ducked. Sasuke however got nailed right between the eyes, causing him to curse and whirl at her while Naruto began belly laughing. It didn't last for long however as soon after he began laughing, he was also hammered with projectiles. Yori’s aim was not a thing to be dismissed. 

“Oh, my. I wonder how that happened. Oh, well, now that we are all focused.” Naruto seemed to want to protest and whine, and Sasuke just looked plain insulted and confused, “How about we train a little bit. If Kakashi-sensei is going to be anything like he was yesterday- and seeing as he hasn't yet shown up it's safe to say that he will be- we now have a lot of freetime. I propose we warm up and train a bit. Yeah?” Sasuke feigned looking bored with his hands stuffed deep into his pockets, and Naruto looked like he had just had the epiphany of the century. 

“Heck yeah Yori, you’re such a genius!” Smiling in response to Naruto’s praise, Yori put up her hand that was not currently holding the basket of food, her pointer finger directed up toward the sky. 

“I propose we set traps!” Yori couldn't hardly hold herself in with all the glee she had at her own genius. She would be effectively killing two birds with one stone with this idea. Sasuke would see that Naruto was  _ not  _ as entirely useless as he thought, and when Kakashi got there for whatever survival training he had in mind- and judging by her futuristic dreams they would be needing whatever help they could get- they would have an edge with their traps. Her smugness dropped down a little with Sasuke’s nonplussed 

“Hn” but she figured that he would come around, and if he didn't, she had her methods- believe it or not Naruto and Sasuke were very similar, and she had figured out long ago how to bend Naruto to her will unwittingly. 

____________________________________________________________

Well, Yori never claimed to be perfect. She never had. No matter how much those piercing Uchiha eyes accused her. She had never claimed that her plan was perfect- nor had she ever said that it would work out well for them. No, she had simply made an educated guess- a hypothesis!- that perhaps, maybe, if they set traps and ate before the ‘survival training’ things might work out better for them. 

It would almost always be futile of course- Genin against Jounin; preposterous!- but she didn't get why the Uchiha had to look at her like it was all  _ her _ fault their  _ Jounin  _ Sensei was seemingly always a step ahead. She was almost ready to snap at him- their cover underneath inconspicuous shrubbery be darned!

“Yori! Why are we hiding, just let me take him, I can-”

“You can what?” 

Yori barely resisted screaming. Crouching right behind Naruto was their perverted, chronologically late Sensei. His bright orange book of porn perched delicately on his hand, in front of his face. Sasuke, like her,  managed to hold it together- and although he had gone taunt as a bow string, he was not panicking. As for Naruto, well unfortunately, the same could not be said. He had screeched and launched a handful of shuriken at their unexpected guest. Jumping out of their bush like a cat on fire, he spun and vaulted about looking for their now once again disappeared Sensei- the shurikens had only hit a log, not a pervert. 

A shame.

Yori tsked. 

Before she could say anything however, Naruto screamed louder than should be possible for a 12 year olds lung capacity. With a great crash and a sucking ‘fwoom’- the sound of all the oxygen in the nearby air being set aflame- Naruto disappeared in a pit of ninja wire and fire. Yori rested her head in her hands. She would be worried if it weren't for the fact that none of their traps were  _ really _ lethal. Well, lethal to Naruto.

She shot a glare and muttered darkly in response to Sasuke’s disgusted ‘Dobe’. Seriously she knew for a  _ fact _ that that trap was made by Sasuke- ninja wire and fire,  _ please _ \- and she also knew that he had not informed them the specifics of any of the traps he had made. He had only revealed the locations- words that were painfully extracted- and that was because they were hard to keep secret.

Honestly she would have to beat it into his skull the meaning of the word teamwork.  Sighing Yori had to admit- even though she loved Naruto like no other- knowing what the trap did and its location would probably have not helped him avoid it. He was ridiculous  _ and _ single minded. 

“Wheeeew, look-it that” Their sensei whistled, now he was right above them on a conveniently placed branch. Sighing again, Yori went to grab Sasuke, they needed to reconvene and regroup. They needed to make a new plan, not that they had ever really had one in the first place. 

Yori grasped air and growled when she looked over to see emptiness where there was once a scowly Uchiha. She barely glanced up in time to see Kakashi dodge a punch and shuriken. Still looking at his book, he missed the explosive tag attached to one of the weapons. Yori admitted to being impressed when her vision of the fight was obscured by smoke. When it cleared though, a doubtful looking Sasuke was all she saw.

Even though it was impressive for a Genin, it was still  _ Genin- _ perhaps it could have thwarted Chunin, but Kakashi was a retired  _ Anbu captain _ . As she was contemplating this, she felt something- someone- grab her ankles. 

Oh. Crap.

Of course.

She’d spent too much time lollygagging. Now up to her neck in dirt, Yori watched as her new Sensei floated out of the ground, that infernal book still clasped in his hand. Not a scratch on him. Damn. Now what? 

Looking toward Sasuke, she realized that the chances of him being any help at all, whatsoever, was almost nilch. Indeed, with her watching he started attacking their Sensei. 

The Sensei still standing next to her head. 

That bastard! 

Not sure herself whom she was referring to- her teammate or her teacher, as both qualified- she fought not to close her eyes and flinch in the face of  _ flaming projectiles;  _ all of which her new sensei dodged and left to land where they may. As far as she was concerned they were both being rather irksome. As Sasuke launched himself from his perch- the very same conveniently placed branch their teacher had occupied- she felt one of his flaming projectiles slice through her cheek. 

Damn. Now a burn  _ and _ a scratch. Keeping her eyes on the squabble before her, because a battle it was not- Sasuke was  _ clearly _ out classed- Yori felt blood flow down her cheek. Head wounds of any kind were particularly annoying for the sheer amount of blood that accompanied.

As Sasuke set up a block against Kakashi’s punch, the Jounin disappeared. She knew it was a ninja thing but it was honestly getting very old, very fast. Sasuke, the impulsive moron he is, after figuring that their sensei was nowhere to be found, decided to set  _ everything _ on fire. She watched as he did the required seals, and for this she clenched one eye and attempted to turn away. Had the moron completely forgotten that she was  _ right there??!  _

Excuse her language, but not really!

Thankfully for her- not so much for the irritating idiot- Kakashi caught hold of Sasuke’s ankles- and down, down, down he went. A sense of vindictive pleasure went through Yori as she saw her pompous teammate meet the same fate as herself. Mayhap he would learn some empathy. Their sensei once again seemed to float up out of the ground around him, not a speck on him in spite of his submersion. 

He then promptly disappeared. Again. The silence that followed could have been comical if it wasn't so inconvenient.  

“Well.” Yori said. Sasuke, ignoring her existence, just squirmed his head.

“Ignoring me isn't going to get you out of your hole. Now, what we need to do is figure a way out, then before noon, acquire the bells together.  _ Together,  _ as in teamwork. Now, how we will decide who gets the two bells is useless if we don't even have any to begin with. After we free ourselves we can reunite with Naruto, and then we might stand a chance together. If you had not learned your lesson already that we stand no chance individually.” She pointedly examined him, the ground around him and all, to be sure he understood what she was referring to. He only ignored her more fiercely, but seeing as there was no way he could  _ avoid  _ hearing her, she had his full attention. 

“Now while you were throwing sharp implements at your teammates, I was wiggling my way into an idea to get out of these things.” 

“As far as I’ve been able to tell there is little dirt covering our shoulders as we still have our heads, thankfully. Now… If we.. Can ju..st … Ah-ha!” Shoving up with as much force as she was able, yori managed to release one shoulder from the dirt. Looking up in excitement, she saw Sasuke now looking over with interest. Feeling her pride surge at the attention as well as the success, she worked harder to get her other shoulder out. 

Now both shoulders free, Yori faced the problem of getting the rest out. Wiggling her body left and right- looking like a fool she paid no mind to- as she worked her butt off trying to loosen the dirt around her. If she could just release one hand… Yori was almost down her torso now, and she was getting more frantic as she got closer and closer to releasing a hand. Just a hand, just one would be enough- she was filthy and was cratering the earth around her, it was in this situation, Sasuke also having finally released his shoulders, Naruto found them. 

“Damn pervert, I’ll show him, then he’ll be beggin me for forgivene- Yori?!” Immediately, because Naruto was the most amazing thing to ever happen to this team- to the Village- he began to help dig her out. His mouth was also going mile a minute as he did,

“YORI! That damn Old Man! We’ll get him, Yori! Shit, look what he did to you- your face! That asshole! God damnit!” Seeing as it hadn't taken long at all to get one of her hands out, then her other, Naruto used one of his to gently wipe at the blood on her face. Being careful that his dirt encrusted skin never made direct contact with her wound. 

Thankfully the flow had ebbed but she was absolutely filthy. The side of her face- cheekbone down to her neck was absolutely coated in her own sticky smelly blood. Finding it best that he not know the true perpetrator of that particular scratch, she smiled- more like winced- and grabbed the hand touching her face. Holding it cupped to her cheek. 

“Yeah, we’ll get him won’t we? We have to show him we’re better than they think- and that we definitely will  _ not  _ be going to the academy.” Unsaid- for her at least- was the fact that no Hokage was going back to the academy after finally becoming a genin. Looking into steely determined blue, Yori almost got lost. Naruto needed to stop with the perfection that was his cerulean eyeballs. No, looking over she saw a somewhat squeamish Sasuke. Not guilty- because heaven forbid an Uchiha do anything worthy or deserving of guilt!- but certainly he was showing subtle signs of remorse. 

It was in his stock still form- no longer flopping like a fish to get out of the dirt. He also refused to look their way, instead pretending to examine the beautiful nature around them. Yori huffed in amusement. 

“You too, Sasuke. We’re all going to show that pedophile that we’re more than just any old Genin.” She pushed to get the rest of her body out of the hole, Naruto assisting by pulling up under her arms- when the dirt finally gave and she was released, the combined forces of her and Naruto sent the both of them backwards in a heap. Pushing herself up off of Naruto’s sweaty form, Yori crawled the short distance over to Sasuke. She ignored Naruto- who was still on his back.

Scooping handfuls of dirt up, Yori focused on releasing first his right hand, as then they could both get at his left. When finally he was uncovered to his hips, Yori, -Naruto as well, as he seemed to get over whatever had kept him- pulled while Sasuke pushed. With one great heave, he was freed. Unlike Yori however, he managed to retain his dignity and not fall forward- how he managed not to loose his pants would forever baffle her- while she and Naruto both fell back onto their bums and into each other. 

Shoulder pressed firmly against Naruto’s, Yori grabbed Sasuke’s wrist, interrupting his- useless- efforts to brush the dirt from his person, and pulled him down so that they made a little circle. Sasuke, who while not  _ touching _ Naruto was still pretty close, looked put out when she beckoned him in closer. Now, formed into a tight circle, Yori looked the both of them in the eye in turn, then said,

“Alright, now here’s my plan; give me your input as we go please.” 

 


	11. Chapter 11

As expected, Kakashi was nowhere to be seen; and yet his presence was ever felt. Their plan was ready to be executed- and while she said it was her plan- and it was, it had come out of her brain- the boys were both convinced that they were the masterminds. It was cute really, and Yori couldn't help her goofy smile at their antics. No- this is a serious time, she needed to be ready with her game face on. Pinching her cheeks viciously, Yori took note of her teammates’ positions. 

They had decided on a triangle formation- as was usually the most effective in a cell of three. Yori was already in her position, and as expected the bait had mysteriously appeared in the center; Naruto was versed in evading Anbu- if he didn't want to be caught doing something he wouldn't be. Yori wondered at that briefly before shaking herself out again. 

There! That was the signal. Sasuke was in position. Yori chirped back, now they were just waiting on Naruto- and there was his guttural croak now. He only seemed to be able to imitate a frog effectively. Shaking her head exasperated, Yori watched as Sasuke stealthily snuck out to the center of the clearing toward the bait, staying on guard the whole time. Yori could see it in his body when he realized what the ‘bait’  _ really _ was. 

Yori knew that this part of the plan was understood but she couldn't help but worry. She and Naruto had only to share a look and a word and he knew exactly what book she was talking about for him to bait, the little pervert. She knew for a fact he hadn't read it through though, and that was all that mattered really. 

Sasuke practically growled as he stalked the doomed book. Doing the handsigns for a fireball technique, Yori hoped their sensei would take the bait. As Sasuke was inhaling, readying to expel chakra fueled fire at the atrocity- Yori almost lost her game face at the way Sasuke was honestly reacting to the foul piece of literature, she had no doubt that there was no real acting going on- for his scorn was 100 percent authentic. 

“Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!”

The fire was already leaving Sasuke’s mouth when their ever elusive Sensei came to the rescue. Even with the knowledge that it was undoubtedly a trap, and that they were baiting him, it would seem the pervert was unable to just let the book be destroyed. Yori figured he deserved the trauma; he had likely  _ let _ them get this far- the three of them planning and plotting together so obviously and whatnot- because he had been curious. 

Well curiosity killed the cat! 

Yori Yanked a trip wire, sending two sizeable logs barreling toward her Sensei while she jumped into the action. At the moment their teacher had a fire blowing student in front of him, two large logs coming at him from the sides, and another student approaching from the back left. Imitating Sasuke she performed the required seals and yelled 

“Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!” 

Kakashi’s eyes widened in shock, and she swore she heard a curse escape his masked lips. Unlike with Sasuke’s technique however, no fire came out of her mouth. Deceit was a ninja’s best friend, of course! Their Sensei had jumped to his rear right in avoidance though, despite her bluff- no before he comprehended the bluff, more like- sometimes you just can't help instincts. 

Realizing his mistake immediately- no doubt also impressively realizing that he was being herded- he was bombarded with shuriken and Narutos. Most of them making a grab for the bells, some of them going for his throat, but it was futile. Their teacher seemed to realise that they weren't messing around and in turn had dialed up his own seriousness and skill level. If he had seemed elusive before, he was practically intangible now.

Yori wasn't done yet however- and neither was Sasuke. Neither were they finished with their traps. Their Sensei had taken  _ hours _ to arrive to their training grounds, veritably every inch of these training grounds was a potential trap, if activated correctly. 

Almost as soon as she landed Yori knelt and grabbed another wire, this one hidden under a thin layer of topsoil. Yanking up on it Yori heard metal clink and the wire catch. 

“Now!” She screamed, and like flies Naruto(’s) and Sasuke ceased throwing shuriken and dropped to the ground; some of the clones ignored her in favor of continuing their futile fighting, while some started whooping in the midst of their maneuvers. Kakashi- of course, what would the point be then?- had no time to react. With a mighty snap, the ground was briefly cast into shadow due to the sheer amount of  weapons being hurled toward their Sensei. 

Now when she had said earlier that none of the traps set up were lethal, she meant by Ninja standards- um, and also she meant by the easier to activate ones weren't very lethal- seeing as Ninja had such fast reflexes, escaping two large logs or thousands of flying sharp projectiles was nothing to be scared of. Well. Maybe that wasn't entirely true but Yori was going to stick with it.

Now, undoubtedly their sensei had evaded the weapons, it was simply a matter of whether he had gone up or down. If the Naruto’s had done as planned and blocked the way to the sky, Kakashi was more likely in the ground… along with more than a ridiculous amount of Naruto’s clones lying in wait, already having dug their way down discretely. It was honestly risible and a blessing just how many of those things that boy could create. Standing once the coast was clear, and seeing Sasuke do the same. Yori heard muffled shouting and struggle, and could see a disturbance in the dirt where the fighting was undoubtedly happening- and if things went according to plan, Yori went with Sasuke and readied herself for their sensei to pop out of the earth. Almost too quick to catch, their sensei burst out of the ground and- still not a speck of dirt on him,  _ how _ ?- Yori and Sasuke were on him before he could move any further. 

As expected they were pushed back, but they were back at it again like dogs immediately. Yori going for a backwards jumping roundhouse kick, and Sasuke deciding to go low in joint with her attack, Kakashi redirected her kick, and punted Sasuke away. Wincing in sympathy, Yori landed lightly and tried to remain in motion to attack again when there was the sound of tinkling bells from the hole. A laughing Naruto the culprit. 

Kakashi, shocked looked toward the sound, and Yori took the opportunity. Quick as lightning, not losing a beat at the distracting sounds, she grabbed hold of the bells on her Sensei’s belt. Unfortunately for her, speaking of those ‘lethal’ ninja reflexes, she was backhanded both in the face and in her attempt at a left arm guard for her efforts. 

Now let Yori say one thing in that it was not pleasant to be lobbed across training field seven, arse over teakettle. The total silence that followed was not pleasant either, it made the sound of her finally skidding to a stop that much more loud. Her ugly gasping and choking was also obnoxiously loud as she tried to regain her lost breath. It felt absolutely horrible. 

“YORI?!!!” The horrified silence seemed to end with Naruto’s desperate shriek, and the heavy thuds of his footsteps approaching her were lovely. Waving her clenched hand up in the air- her right hand, she was unsure if her left one was even still attached, let alone in one piece- she attempted to convey without words that she was -mostly- fine. Sitting up, and finally taking deep breaths into her abused lungs, Yori looked and saw her other, sulkier, teammate approaching, as well as an emotionless Kakashi. 

Looking at her two teammates, Yori smiled wickedly, and just like that it was like she was fine. Still holding up her right hand, she unclasped her fingers and two bells dangled from her digits and tinkled happily. Her response was absolute shock- then absolute elation. Naruto started screaming and grabbed her up into his arms and started spinning them both wildly about. She was screaming and laughing as well with the bells held up high, and she could see- whenever he circled into her line of sight- Sasuke had a self satisfied, smug smirk on his face as well. He had also returned to his at rest position, arms crossed and straight posture.

Basking in the victory for a while Yori simply enjoyed Naruto’s enthusiasm. He eventually set her back gently on her feet, but it wasn't for at least a minute after that that reality came knocking again. Their sensei was standing not five feet away from the gathered group. Sasuke for once not seeming to mind Naruto’s closeness or his excessive enthusiasm. Ah, but this bliss was brief.   

“Ahem. Now my cute little genin, there is one problem left. Who will get the bells, and who will be going back to the academy?” And just like that, it was as though a ton of really, really cold bricks was dropped on top of them. The boys remained frozen in shock for a split second, while Yori’s mind worked a mile a minute. 

Wait, they had worked together, wasn't that the point of the exercise? There was no such thing as removing a member of a four man genin-jounin team in favor of a two-to-one ratio instead, even in the older more accomplished cells there was still an even number of four. Right? There were options to swap out a member- no- was that what this was? Realizing that Kakashi’s one burning eye was staring straight into her, Yori panicked internally. Was that what this was? 

NO.

It couldn't be, neither Naruto, Sasuke or her wanted to go back but that was stupid-  _ no  _ graduated genin would want to go back to the Academy. Looking at her teammates, Yori thought to herself. Already they had come to their senses and were arguing. It was getting too heated, too fast- it was about to combust and escalate into a full fledged fight- not an annoying rivalry one either. 

Yori looked at the bells still wrapped tightly around her fingers- Naruto was going no doubt. He was too important and had too much to do in this world- becoming the Hokage was only  _ one _ of the great things she was sure he was going to accomplish- there was an order there had to be rungs to his ladder to Hokage, and this was one of them. That left her and Sasuke. 

Yori wanted- she wanted so bad- but she couldn't be selfish. Sasuke was the second son to the head of the Uchiha clan. And although that meant absolutely nothing to Yori, it meant everything to Sasuke. He was trying his hardest just to play catch up with his brother, to try and win just the littlest bit of sympathy, of love from his father. It was a no-brainer.

Without a second thought she chucked the two bells at the boys. One at each of them. If she really was sent back to the academy she would do her best to be right back out. She was smart, she was… talented, she guessed. Just thinking such thoughts in her head made her shy, but Naruto had gone a long way toward making her more confident and outgoing. She could do it.

“They get the bells Sensei.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually went and tried to write action and here we are, I'm not totally happy wight the way this came out but overall I read through it and its not too horrible, any typos and whatnot please leave a comment for and I will fix. I can only catch so much   
> also disclaimer anything you recognize throughout this fanfic please be aware it does not belong to me.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> its rather short but I wanted to post something to celebrate the fact that I got my Computer back in the mail today, it was a very happy and confusing surprise

Unfortunately the shocked silence only lasted so long before Naruto exploded. It was either that or he imploded and either one wasn't very pretty. After the initial ‘LIKE HELL’ and other screamed protests about how she was going to be with him no matter what and yadda yadda yadda, she looked more at the other two members of what she hoped might still be her team. Sasuke looked stunned but his poker face was soon to follow and after looking at her for a bit, he nodded his head slightly- it might have been at her it might not have been, Sasuke always did make sure to have plausible deniability, it ran in the family she had no doubt- he turned away with his arms crossed. Kakashi was just as silent but just as he had been hard before, he seemed more soft. Like ice cream on a hot summer day in fire country, it was as though he had melted somewhat.

It was then that Naruto screamed,

“I WON'T GO IF YOU WON'T GO!” and Yori took notice. Turning back to the blond sharply, she shut him up with a glare, if that was even possible. Pointing her finger at him she practically growled out,

“Oh, yes you will go, I will catch up to you regardless of where you are, don't you dare hold back for me, you're going to be the Hokage- you cannot fail the genin exam!” Her determined glare however was met with another determined glare, and she felt herself deflate on the inside, if it was possible for her stomach to clench up more than it already had, it certainly did in that moment. It was everything she could to to keep up her growling tone, because anything was better than bursting into tears right there. She was a ninja in training and tears were not to be excused in any situation while on duty with her headband on.

Sasuke even seemed to take notice if his twitching was anything to go off of, he had even slanted his body more so toward the group- subtly of course. All of them jumped however when Kakashi clapped his hands together.

“Well, lovely as that is, there is none of that- you all PASS!” Yori, although she had been hoping for such a thing to happen, felt so much relief in that moment, she didn't know exactly what to do. She hadn't realised how close to her Naruto was but when her knees practically gave out in just that moment and she grabbed onto him to steady herself, it evolved into a hug on her part- one Naruto unconsciously returned even as he was madly screaming at their teacher.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN? MAKE UP YOUR MIND ALREADY YOU PERVERTED SENSEI!” Yori pinched him on the shoulder, and whispered-albeit rather loudly- into his ear

“Don't antagonise him or he might change his mind again!” Kakashi’s eye twitched in her peripherals and Yori couldn't help the smug smile sneaking up on her face. He spoke up, ignoring the both of them and their comments completely.

“I want you to look behind you,” gesturing toward the tombstone behind where they were gathered, Yori knew what to expect but to actually see the stone, and all the names carved into the surface so immaculately, Yori couldn't help her surprise and melancholy at the sight of so many names. They seemed to blend together and were written in a modestly sized font, and the sight of it got to her more than she wanted to admit.

“What’s this?” Naruto asked, and Yori wanted to tell him but she felt that he should find out from Kakashi, it would mean more that way.

“It’s a memorial stone, commending all the heroes of Konoha.” Kakashi’s dead tone didn't seem to get through to Naruto and Yori flinched when he said in his optimistic way,

“Heroes huh? My name is going to be on there one day then! Believe it!” He had his hands on his hips and he looked like himself so much, but Yori wanted the thought out of her head immediately; luckily Sasuke was there to clarify,

“Their dead, Dobe.” Before Naruto even had the chance to react to the insult, Kakashi was back

“Died in the line of duty, protecting their village and their country. In the shinobi world, those that break the written and unwritten rules are deemed trash... but be that as it may... Those that would disregard their comrades so easily are even worse than trash. And those who don't have the decency to respect the memories of their comrades are the worst. All of my former teammates are on that rock” and like that Naruto went into silence, one of his contemplative ones, and squeezing her tight, he mumbled a quiet, “yeah.” Nobody needed any more explanation and Yori made sure to see a med-nin later that night to heal her up properly- thankfully only a few deep bruises- before the next morning when the team was scheduled to meet up again for official training as genin. Naruto refused to leave her side, and although she told herself it was because Naruto refused to leave her be, she clung just as much and didn't protest a single bit; not even when they both crawled into Yori’s bed to sleep that night.


End file.
